Letter from Eric Bravin MD

‘It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again’

As I read last week’s article about Jan McGrath and the Bassett retirees’ battle to stop last-minute changes to their health insurance benefits (“Bassett Halts Changes to Retiree Benefits,” issue of December 12, 2024), I couldn’t help but think of Yogi Berra’s memorable quote, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Three years ago in October, just before open health insurance enrollment, Bassett administration informed us and other part-time employees that we would not have any employer sponsored health insurance for the following year. The fact that we had a family with three children and our cumulative 40 years of service to the institution meant nothing. Bassett administration clearly intended to leave our family uninsured with almost no advance notice.

We were also ultimately successful in fending off this abrupt termination of our health insurance, but it certainly changed our notion of our relationship with the institution.

I thought afterward that there was genuine institutional recognition of the bad blood their approach had spawned, and a plan to treat Bassett employees with more thoughtfulness and respect in the future. Perhaps not.

Eric Bravin MD
Hartwick