The following email was sent to DOE-employed UFT members and pre-Medicare-eligible retirees on June 2, 2025 from Geof Sorkin, Executive Director of the UFT Welfare Fund:

In our last update on April 29, we informed you that the city and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) were nearing the end of the next phase in the negotiated acquisition process to improve New York City’s in-service and pre-Medicare retiree health care plan, and they had narrowed the finalists down to EmblemHealth/UnitedHealthcare (UHC) and Aetna.

Based on the scoring of the final bids from the two vendors, the city and the MLC are moving forward into negotiations with EmblemHealth/UHC. It’s a big step in our movement to improve in-service and pre-Medicare retiree health care while protecting our premium-free benefits in the coming years.

Why was EmblemHealth/UHC chosen?

The scoring on the final bids shows that EmblemHealth/UHC can provide better policies on several key issues, which helped put it ahead of Aetna. These issues include:

• Keeping current doctors: Less disruption by allowing our members to keep the doctors that they currently use.
• Expanded network/greater access: A way to significantly expand our network of doctors, hospitals and other services.
• Premium-free promise: A clear roadmap to allow us to keep our health care premium free. 

What happens now?

The city and the MLC will begin an intense negotiation process with EmblemHealth/UHC to achieve the goals of the UFT Health Care Committee (outlined below). If the negotiations end with an agreed-upon plan, the plan will be presented to that member-based committee, which will make a recommendation to the UFT Delegate Assembly for a vote. The Delegate Assembly will vote to decide if we, as part of the MLC, will support the plan.

We will keep you posted. Remember, we are the UFT, and as one of the strongest unions in the country, we will never agree to any plan that is not an improvement on our current plan.

Hopefully this choice of a finalist brings us one step closer to addressing the growing frustrations we face with health care, while protecting our right to keep our health care premium free.

A reminder of our goals: 

Benefit improvements: We and the rest of the MLC would like to expand our provider network, both in New York State and out of state, keep access to all current hospitals and expand access to more, create new tools to hold health care providers accountable and have copays decrease or at least stay the same — all while maintaining our premium-free high-quality health benefits.

We are identifying the out-of-network doctors used most frequently by our members and will work to bring them into the provider network. Our goal is to expand the provider network so 95% of the providers seen by city workers are in network.

Lock in a longer contract: For the first time ever, the MLC and the city would like to sign a five-year health care contract to help protect us from rising health care costs. We renew our health care contract annually now, but a five-year contract would lock in rates and guarantee we have great benefits for the next five years.

See the latest updates on the fight to protect and enhance our premium-free health care »