This week, the NYC Office of the Mayor announced the conclusion of the bidding process to identify a new health insurance provider to replace the current city employee comprehensive benefits plan (CBP). That plan has been offered by Emblem/GHI + Anthem/Blue Cross. The new provider will be administered by Emblem with a new partner, United Healthcare. The negotiated acquisition process took more than a year and involved representatives from the NYC Office of Labor Relations, the NYC Office of Management and Budget and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), which represents the city’s public sector unions, including the PSC. The next step will be to negotiate the contract with Emblem/United.
Few details are available at this point about the winning bid from Emblem/United. But as the PSC representative to the MLC, President James Davis will keep members informed as more information becomes available and, as we did during the proposed retiree health plan transition, the PSC will provide forums for member discussion. We have urged MLC leaders to learn from the controversial retiree proposal that it is vital for dialogue and feedback to occur prior to finalizing and approving a contract. This is particularly true for an employee health plan in which 75 percent of the city’s workforce (and pre-65 retirees) and their families participate.
We are encouraged that the new proposal would, for the first time ever, give NYC a self-funded insurance plan. This is a direction the PSC has advocated, including engaging in discussions with mayoral candidates. It is also encouraging that the new CBP will remain premium-free, a benefit enjoyed by few other municipal employees nationally, and that it purports to expand physician and mental health networks. But the press release is short on details about how the new plan will save the city roughly $1 billion per year. Self-funded insurance plans are helpful because they allow flexibility and save on taxes. But as the PSC summarized a year ago in “Myths and Facts about NYC Employee Health Insurance,” pursuing cost savings of this magnitude could jeopardize choice and quality of care and/or shift more out-of-pocket expenses to patients. “Myths and Facts” remains available on the PSC website on the What’s Happening to Our Healthcare page. The press release confirms that in addition to the proposed Emblem/United plan, several other city plans will continue to be offered for municipal employees and their family members, including HIP-HMO and MetroPlusHealth, which also have no employee premiums.
The PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund will continue to provide supplemental benefits to participating PSC active and retiree members and their families, including vision, dental, hearing and prescription drugs. We are fortunate that the recently ratified 2023-2027 PSC-CUNY contract includes significant increases in funding to our Welfare Fund, which will provide financial stability during uncertain times and enhance the quality of our supplemental benefits.
In solidarity,
James Davis, President
Published: June 5, 2025
