Thank you for your service, and good luck with your doctor bills.
New York City’s Finest who were injured on the job still have to pay out of pocket for medical expenses once they retire, a state judicial panel ruled yesterday.
The mid-level Appellate Court said the city law governing benefits for disabled police officers “applies to only current or active employees and members of the NYPD, not retirees,” the judges wrote in their unanimous decision.
The recent decision affirmed a November 2011 ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe, who dismissed the cops’ case.
“While it appears somewhat harsh that the benefits accorded one injured in the line of duty significantly change upon retirement,” she said the law tied her hands.
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association filed a lawsuit in January 2011 to extend health-care coverage for police officers through retirement as costs skyrocketed.
“The bills run in to the thousands,” Roy Richter, of the NYPD’s Captains Endowment Association, told The Post. “It’s not just prescription-drug costs, it’s individual doctor’s visits.”
The city argued to the Appellate Court last fall that the lawsuit was an underhanded attempt to burden taxpayers with more benefits for union workers.
“The sole purpose of this litigation in our view is to shift the cost of these employee responsibilities to the city in the guise of maintaining that the city is responsible for all health costs incurred by retirees for line of duty injuries,” city attorney Paul Rephen said.
Currently, the city pays all medical bills and prescription drugs for cops, firefighters and sanitation workers with job-related maladies, but once they hang up their uniforms, they’re responsible for co-pays and deductibles. The cops involved in the lawsuit are on disability retirement for injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to respiratory disease from Ground Zero.
Peter Winski, 44, retired in 2010 after a 20-year-long career with the NYPD, including rescuing 9/11 victims.
He shells out $250 a month for prescription drugs to stem the pain from chronic sinus and back conditions.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said, “We are reviewing the decision with an eye towards appeal.”