The Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states is expected to impact the use and availability of health insurance benefits. It is expected more employees will include their same-sex partners in their health insurance policies, while at the same time more employers are likely to drop their domestic partnership benefits requiring gay employees to marry for benefits—which still presents legal pitfalls to some.
CBS News reported that as employers reassess their human-resources plans following the ruling, there may be a reduction in domestic partner benefits, according to Aon Hewitt, which estimates 77 percent of employers currently offer same-sex domestic partner health care coverage. Prior to the ruling, a number of employers extended these benefits because gay couples often were denied the right to marry legally. Now that marriage is legal for them nationwide, HR experts say some of those companies may drop domestic partner benefits.
Some companies began tweaking their healthcare policies even before the ruling, with 37 states and the District of Columbia all legalizing gay marriage. Verizon and Delta Air Lines, according to CBS News, gave ultimatums to their employees: get married in order to retain your partner’s healthcare coverage.
Domestic same-sex partner benefits were created “to equalize benefits for spouses and same-sex couples who couldn’t get married” said J.D. Piro, senior vice president and national practice leader in the Aon Hewitt Health Law Group. “The question is if it’s still needed. The answer for every employer will be different.”
Approximately 22 percent of companies polled by The Erisa Industry Committee earlier this year reported they would drop benefits offered to domestic partners if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, while more than two-thirds of companies said they would keep them if the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.
Scott Belsky, government relations manager at GoHealth told CBS News that under the Affordable Care Act, individuals who get dropped from a partner’s health insurance plan can enroll through what’s called a “qualifying life event.” These events allow individuals to buy health insurance through the state or federally run exchanges outside of the annual enrollment period.
But Belsky said that even before the Supreme Court ruling, some people had moved off their domestic partner’s insurance plan in favor of buying an individual plan through Obamacare. “They are often getting tax credits or were finding plans that were cheaper than through” their partner’s workplace, he said. “That will be accelerated by the Supreme Court ruling.”
“It just made it simpler to administer,” Excellus spokesman Jim Redmond told Modern Healthcare. “It simplified and clarified the parameters of who’s eligible for coverage through the company benefit.”
Attorney Jeff DeVree, who specializes in employee benefits with Varnum LLP, told FOX 17 News he anticipates a head-on conflict between equal protection and religious freedom. “The real question will be for religious organizations and businesses owned by people with strong religious convictions, will the Religious Freedom Restoration Act survive this ruling by the Supreme Court. State law now has to permit same-sex couples to be married; that doesn’t make same-sex marriage a protected classification under employment discrimination laws.”
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