Health Insurance For Unmarried And Singles

By Todd Jones

If the employers are offering health insurance coverage to the spouses of employees they commonly, and unluckily, do not usually extend the coverage to unmarried partners. There is no requirement for Employers to offer health insurance to any employees, spouses, or "domestic partners." Employers are not constrained by ERISA also to extend coverage to domestic partners, that provide health insurance for employees and legal dependents.

Employers across the country have started offering domestic partner benefits in the last several years . Recently it has been found that the number of such employers is increasing. As small companies begun to follow the lead of large employers that have introduced domestic partner benefit plan in the recent months employment experts anticipate that this new trend will continue.

Domestic Partner Rights have been strengthened by the passing of several state and local laws in their favor. Ordinances mandating businesses with municipal contracts to offer same-sex benefits for unmarried couples have been passed by States like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Recently in Vermont they achieve the country's first "civil union" law.

This law grants same-sex couples nearly all of the benefits that the state's married couples are entitled with. Up to this moment the result of the prearrangements about health insurance is still unknown because they are in the process of being written.

The level of coverage varies depending on the employer when benefits are offered to domestic partners. Long-term care, group life insurance, family and bereavement leave, and the most common are, health, dental, and vision insurance which are included in the domestic partner benefits. The characterization of domestic partner might perhaps alter from employer to employer. Inclusion of same-sex couples, unmarried opposite-sex couples, and common law marriages is done by other companies.

Same-sex partners are covered by some employers only on the conditions that opposite-sex couples can receive spousal benefits by getting married, while same-sex couples do not have this option. How the term is being described is still not clear with employers so they make it mandatory for domestic partner to sign an affidavit which clearly states an assurance that they are in a lasting and committed relationship. In addition to that it can be possibly required by them that the couple live together for a specified period of time before they are qualified for the benefits a domestic partner can basically get. - 29970

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