The leaders of unions representing city workers voted Wednesday to shift retiree health benefits to a new plan under Medicare Advantage, a program in which public benefits are administered through private companies. The vote, conducted by the Municipal Labor Committee, came out in favor of awarding a city contract for a custom Medicare Advantage plan to The Alliance, a collaboration between EmblemHealth and Anthem Blue Cross.

"The City’s commitment to our retirees is unwavering, and our new plan increases both quality and benefits for retirees while also lowering costs for the City and its taxpayers," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement after the vote.

The move will affect some 250,000 municipal retirees, hundreds of whom marched against the changes in Manhattan last week in the midst of a heat wave. Critics had expressed concerns that access to care would be diminished under the new plan, while some retirees lamented that there wasn’t enough transparency in the process of making the change.

“They should have involved us a year ago when the city was first putting together the request for proposals,” said Stuart Eber, president of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations.

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