Legal vs. Ethical

Dan

With all the media hype about same sex marriages in the news recently, I had an interesting conversation with a lady who works for a big insurance company on the East Coast. The company she works for will offer benefits to same sex domestic partners but not to heterosexual domestic partners. They have been doing this for several years. I do not believe it is illegal but think of the employee problems this one could cause.

HR in CA

In California once same sex partners register with the state they are entitled to benefits as are different sex domestic partners if one of the partners is Medicare eligible.

Go figure!

lnelson

It depends on your insurance carrier and if your co opted for the domestic partner agreement. upon our agreeing to it our current insurance carrier offered domestic partner coverage for both same and different sexes as long as the have lived together for a minimum of 4 mths at the same residence. These guidelines are very minimal it varies greatly with carriers.

rad

I never thought that was fair but have always been told that heterosexual couples always had the option of marrying and consequently qualifying for benefits (hey, its as good a reason as any!) and homosexual couples did not. Now, in my state, they do. So I'm curious to see if my company is going to change its offering of benefits to same sex domestic partners to our Massachusetts residents since that reason is no longer valid.

jriley

RAD, I would be interested to learn if your company changes its benefit options now that law has changed in MA for same sex couples.

Jennifer