Eric Adams gets big win from court in retired NYC worker health care battle but most of his rivals vow to kill it anyway

Mayor Eric Adams scored a massive legal win in the controversial battle to move retired city workers to higher cost health-care plans — but nearly all the candidates running to replace him as mayor are already planning to stop the move in its tracks.The Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the city could shift retirees to Medicare Advantage plans –  a private healthcare program that utilizes Medicare subsidies in lieu of traditional Medicare and supplements – after years of fighting by retiree advocacy groups.The ruling found that retirees who sued over the change had insufficiently argued that adopting the advantage plans would lead to worsened care and that assurances that the city would keep them on Medicare plans wasn’t legally enforceable.Adams’ term is up at year’s end and he dropped out of a Democratic Party primary that is set for next week.Adams is now running as an independent in a longshot bid, though the Democratic Party torchbearer would be far and away the favorite to win election in the deeply blue city.Mayoral hopefuls Comptroller Brad Lander and frontrunner Andrew Cuomo have both publicly opposed the switch and have specifically called for 30-to-60 day grace periods for families to seek other insurance after the death of a retiree and expediting the reimbursements process, as part of their pledge to retiree groups.Every other candidate – with the exception of independent Jim Walden – also oppose the switch, according to a Citizen Budget Commission questionnaire. While surging socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani recently opposed the plan on his campaign website, a source with knowledge told The Post that he didn’t sign a pledge to support the retirees nor did he go to the debate hosted by the advocacy group New York City Public Service Retirees. The source continued to say that this was in order to prevent losing an endorsement from the public service union DC37, which supports the switch to Medicare advantage plans.The ...