As a lifelong registered Independent voter, I have always encouraged others to pay close attention to what political candidates say during campaigns and what they actually do during their time in office. We need to elect those representatives who are willing to research and discuss issues with others with whom they disagree. Seeing things from the eyes and minds of others is the only way that our government will be able to pass legislation that is meaningful and well thought out.
This is what I believe occurred when it took Congress from July of 2009 until March of 2010 to develop the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as the GOP despised Obamacare. As my book points out, time has proven that this was a most beneficial program even though the republican party tried everything to destroy it and put health care under the control of the free enterprise system of government.
Since this program was signed into law, there have been many changes in both health care and pensions imposed by the business community, none of which has been beneficial to employees; yet was great for corporate America and their stockholders. They realized that with people living longer and having long term health problems, these benefit programs were no longer sustainable. Now State Governments are realizing that they also need to decrease these cost burdens. I believe that this is a situation that the Federal Government needs to address, particularly due to the fact that a lot of self-serving individuals run for office especially for obtaining these lifetime benefits.
N.Y. City Mayor Eric Adams is presently pushing for a plan to move the city’s 250,000 retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan managed by Aetna. It is said that the city’s aim is to save $600 million per year with the Aetna-run Medicare Advantage plan, a privatized version of Medicare. As a retiree I have had a similar Medicare Advantage plan for over 10 years now, to supplement Medicare. Simple Medicare does not cover many of the expenses my wife and I have.
Numerous insurance companies offer this supplemental coverage, but their plans differ in confusing ways. As I explain in my book, those who elected to work until retiring for federal, state and even city government have unbelievable pension and health care plans. Their costs for medical treatment and particularly prescription drugs, are next to nothing. Those of us that worked all of their life for the business community have seen our benefits continually diminish throughout the years. It is certainly understandable that the affected retirees in New York City are outraged.
Unfortunately, I have found it next to impossible to get a correct understanding of the true differences between the two sides of the story. The news media hasn’t presented a deep dive into the actual cost differences and the employee unions don’t seem to want to expose publicly how great their benefits have been in comparison to the free market system. Also, our politicians are not investigating and telling their constituents what they believe is in everyone’s best interests. This is a complex problem that needs to be fully examined and understood before being passed into law.
As in independent voter I would like to see our elected officials take the following into consideration. First of all, our government should never pass a law that makes drastic changes to a written promise that people worked for all their lives and are reliant on these funds for their survival. If we were to allow our government to do so we will only further convince all Americans that our government could reduce any of our freedoms to unacceptable levels.
If all Americans truly believe that if the sale and possession of deadly alterable semi-automatic weapons become outlawed, then they will surely believe that this will lead to legislation that will take away all of our gun rights. If this were to happen then we will have a rebellion against our government that will make the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol Building look like a mosquito bite. The rational half of Americans know full well that the government could never eliminate these basic gun rights despite the preaching of the NRA and conservative media.
What needs to be done to solve NY City’s health care problem is to do what corporate America did to me. That is, to change employee benefits depending on time of service and vestment eligibility. This is more in reference to pension plans. Health care plans diminished periodically over years of service, where eventually the company would no longer supplement outside of Medicare provisions such as dental, vision, hearing and most importantly the high cost of prescription drugs.
These plans that will affect those who are still working need to be well thought out and explained as to how these cost reductions will be made over time so that families can plan for there future expenses verses income potential. In the case of pension eligibility, we were offered a lump-some one-time payment over keeping the existing retirement plan. Many employees chose the lump-sum payment thinking that they would eventually leave the company. Those of us who chose keeping their retirement later found out that their monthly allotment has never increased during the years of their retirement.
This is why our elected government representatives need to fully understand that they are responsible for developing a well-researched and transparent plan of action before presenting any complex legislation into law. This is the only way that America can regain faith in our government. We must all realize that changes to existing laws will become necessary as time and technology proves otherwise and these situations must be willingly debated by all parties.
And yes, I believe that assault weapons such as the AR-15, along with high-capacity ammunition magazines need to be outlawed. However, those who presently own these weapons should be given consideration for the grand-father clause allowing them to keep their weapons with strict registration compliance. Those of us who served in the military and have been trained on these weapons of mass destruction understand the fascination with shooting them. However, I believe that ownership and usage should only be allowed within qualified American shooting ranges.
