Brian Lair on WNYC and you know New York City government retirees, 250,000 of them

about had been bracing for, if not dreading, a major change in healthcare coverage from

traditional Medicare with supplemental coverage paid for by the city to a privatized Medicare

advantage plan run by Etna. Today was supposed to be the deadline for opting out and buying

any additional Medicare coverage as an individual on the open market. Well, for now, that's all

on hold. A group of municipal retirees filed a lawsuit against a number of city agencies

and other parties in an effort to scrap the plan altogether. And on Friday afternoon,

a judge granted the plaintiffs petition to at least temporarily block the move while the

case is pending in court. That came, as I say, just days before the crucial opt out deadline,

which would have been today and would have required those remaining on traditional Medicare to

waive important city benefits as well as pay for healthcare coverage themselves. City officials

had said the shift to private Medicare advantage would save as much as $600 million that the

city could use for other things. But in this lawsuit, and as you may have heard on the show, municipal

retirees have argued that moving on to a Medicare advantage plan would mean worse coverage. So,

more now on this lawsuit and temporary pause in the transition to Medicare advantage with Caroline

Lewis, our Health and Science reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. Hi, Caroline. Welcome back.

Always great to have you on the show. Hi, Brian. Good to be on. Should be an interesting

discussion. I think so. And with the listeners, yes, we're going to take your calls on this ongoing

saga once again. 212-433-WNYC-212-433-9692 with questions and comments. You can also text to that

number 212-433-WNYC. Caroline, remind everybody who's not following this closely. Who are the plaintiffs

in this suit beyond what I said in the intro? And who exactly does it name as defendants?

So, the suit involves a group of city retirees and they're seeking to make it a class action suit.

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