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| Health Insurance for Unmarried Partners |  Usually, and unfortunately, if an employer provides health insurance coverage for the spouses of employees, they usually don’t offer the coverage to unmarried partners too. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), employers do not have to propose health insurance to any employees, spouses, or "domestic partners" (this term is often used to include same-sex couples and unmarried opposite-sex couples, as well as common law marriages). ERISA also does not force employers that offer health insurance employees and legal dependents to provide coverage for domestic partners.
But thousands of employers across the country have started to offer domestic partner benefits in the last several years, and the number continues to grow. Employment experts forecast that this trend will continue, as small companies begin to follow the lead of big employers that have presented domestic partner benefit plans in recent months.
Moreover, some state and local laws have recently been passed in favor of domestic partner rights. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle have ordinances requiring all businesses with municipal contracts to propose same-sex advantages if they propose benefits for married couples. Vermont recently enacted the country's first "civil union" law, which gives same-sex couples nearly all of the advantages to which the state's married couples are entitled. Provisions regarding health insurance are still being written, and it is not yet known what they will entail.
When benefits are proposed to domestic partners, the level of coverage ranges and depends on the employer. Domestic partner benefits may consist of long-term care, group life insurance, family and bereavement leave, and most commonly, health, dental, and vision insurance. The definition of domestic partner may also change from employer to employer. Some companies include unmarried opposite-sex couples, same-sex couples and common law marriages. Others extend their coverage only for same-sex partners on the grounds that opposite-sex couples can obtain spousal benefits by getting married, while same-sex couples do not have this option. Regardless of how the term is defined, employers normally require domestic partners to sign an affidavit stating that they are in a lasting, committed relationship. They may also demand that a couple live together for a fixed period of time before they can get domestic partner benefits.
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