Delegate Assembly Healthcare Update
A Response to the UFT Special Delegate Assembly on September 29, 2025
Last night, at a special session of the UFT Delegate Assembly, a majority of UFT Chapter Leaders and Delegates in attendance voted and approved the proposed healthcare plan that will replace GHI CBP with NYCE PPO. Those currently enrolled in GHI CBP will be automatically moved to NYCE PPO unless they transfer to a different plan during the annual Health Benefits Program Transfer Period that is open during November 2025. The new NYCE PPO plan will take effect January 1, 2026.
Arthur Goldstein: Minority Report
Passage of the new NYCE PPO healthcare plan is largely the result of an effective propaganda campaign by Michael Mulgrew and his Unity caucus, which substituted an FAQ on the UFT website in place of real access for Chapter Leaders and Delegates to review the full healthcare plan. Mulgrew and Unity continue to pick and choose what they tell UFT members about the plan. The devil could be in the details-- and when it comes to for-profit healthcare, those details have the potential to hurt and even kill us.
In the weeks leading up to the healthcare vote, UFT District Reps (all members of Mulgrew’s Unity Caucus), applied direct pressure to UFT Chapter Leaders citywide to vote yes for the healthcare plan. This was done while District Reps were on the clock, conducting district meetings and school visits as well as making direct phone calls to Chapter Leaders. It was paid for by our membership dues. If you and your chapter members voiced opposition to the lack of transparency on the healthcare plan, and your Chapter Leader and/or Delegate(s) voted yes on the plan anyway, you can thank Michael Mulgrew and Unity Caucus for misleading and/or pressuring Chapter Leaders and Delegates to toe the Unity line. If your Chapter Leader and/or Delegate(s) voted against the will of your chapter members, we encourage you to challenge and replace your Chapter Leader/Delegate(s) in chapter elections happening next school year. More info on how to organize and run in union elections is coming soon.
Although none of us have seen the full details of the NYCE PPO healthcare plan (because Mulgrew and Unity will not let us), we can most likely expect the first year of plan implementation in 2026 to result in health insurance coverage that meets or somewhat exceeds the current level of coverage we have through GHI CBP, with an expanded network of coverage for UFT members outside of the NYC metropolitan area. This is not an endorsement of the NYCE PPO plan or a recommendation to enroll. Each UFT member’s choice is their own to make, and we encourage you to make an informed decision that meets the needs of you and your family.
We are concerned about what will happen 12-24 months following plan implementation if the city is not on-track to meet cost-saving targets of $1 billion per year, or if the city decides to pursue cost-saving targets that exceed $1 billion per year in an effort to shore up shortfalls elsewhere in the city budget. This could result in eventual reductions of NYCE PPO in-network providers, diminishment of coverage and/or higher out-of-pocket costs for UFT members and their families. We may also see our private prescription drug information handed over to United Health Care to achieve $100 million in plan savings. Once handed over to United Health Care, our prescription drug information can be used to determine future healthcare authorizations/denials and plan coverage.
Educators of NYC: The $100 Million Secret: How The Deal to Hand Over UFT Members’ Prescription Data Could Fuel UHC’s Denials
As dedicated NYC public school educators and proud, dues-paying members of our UFT, we will continue to monitor this situation and share information. We will continue to hold our UFT leadership accountable to ensure the new NYCE PPO plan provides long-term, low-cost and high-quality health insurance coverage for all in-service and pre-Medicare retiree UFT members and their families. We invite you and all UFT members, both in-service and retirees, to join us in this work. More information on ways to get involved is coming soon, and we look forward to organizing with you for better working conditions in NYC public schools, a better shared future and a better UFT.
We should take a lead on the situation and address how Unity works to divide its members. Active vs Retirees. IG post from Chapter leader regarding DA that retiree delegates don’t care, it doesn’t concern them. He needs to be removed immediately. Your post and others will be the catalyst to make our active union brothers and sisters understand Mulgrew’s Unity hold on the UFT. Retirees have been fighting with Mulgrew over our healthcare too. We literally have and will keep our battle in the courts as active workers are retirees in training. Visit our site and pass along.
NYC ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE RETIREES. nycretirees.org
This can be the point where we take back our union!
Why wasn’t the UFT actuary at the Health Care Committee meetings and most importantly the DA meeting?
Delegates could have asked:
1. What is the fee structure for the Emblem which is administering this self-funded plan?
Is it a percentage of loss costs i.e. aggregate claims?
Is it a set fee per claim?
2. Does Emblem receive a percentage of health care cost savings (what the industry calls “repricing”) ? If so, what is it?
3. What is the assumption for medical trend i.e. medical inflation?
How will medical inflation adjust the reimbursement rates to providers? If medical inflation goes up, will the provider rates go up accordingly.
4. Is the MLC commitment to save 600 million dollars annually in effect?
If so, how will the plan realize that cost savings with health care inflation?
The Health Care Committees and the DA had a responsibility to ask those questions.
If Leadership refused to have the UFT actuary answer those basic, fundamental questions the responsible vote would have been: No on the plan.