UM health insurance benefits extended to same-sex couples

Rafael Chacon, a University of Montana art professor, always used to say he earned less than his straight colleagues.
It wasn’t that he had a smaller salary, but he and his partner paid for his partner’s health insurance out of their pockets and through a private insurance agency.
Chacon’s partner wasn’t eligible for UM’s employee insurance plan. Instead, he paid about $4,000 a year for his own health insurance.
“For me, it’s always been a case of discrimination,” Chacon said.
Chacon and his partner were not eligible for UM’s benefits because couples had to sign an affidavit saying they were married, at least by common law, in order to receive them. In Montana, gay couples cannot get married, and Chacon and his partner were not eligible to sign the agreements.
However, the Board of Regents unanimously voted earlier this month to extend health benefits to one adult dependent for each employee covered by the University. The vote extended health insurance benefits, in theory, to same-sex couples.
The new policy will go into effect July 1.
The dependent would have to meet certain criteria, which the board left for Sheila Stearns, the commissioner of higher education, to determine.
The criteria will probably consist of rules such as employees would have to have lived with their dependents for at least one year, have joint ownership of a home or vehicle, financially support each other or have some sort of power of attorney over the other person, said Glen Leavitt, director of benefits for the Montana University System.
Candidates will probably have to meet a certain number of the criteria to obtain benefits, he said. The final decision will be left to Stearns and her office.
Chacon is somewhat concerned about the standards, but he is doubtful that it will pose too much of a problem for him and his partner, as they have a long-term relationship and share bills and accounts.
“Obviously we were pleased with the outcome,” Chacon said. “I think it’s a very good step.”
As with married couples, the employee will pay about $150 a month for the additional dependent. The Montana University System does not pay for the extra coverage.
“I don’t think the opposition on this ever had much of an argument,” Chacon said.
About 50 people came to the Board of Regents meeting to show their opposition to the proposal.
The Board of Regents didn’t care what the taxpayers had to say, said
Gloria Hardin, a Bozeman resident who spoke against the new policy.
“I felt like they had their minds made up before we went in there,” she said.
Hardin said she was not swayed by the regents’ argument that allowing more people into the insurance plan would spread out the cost and benefit everyone.
“I was not for it, so I still feel the same about it,” Hardin said.
The policy change stemmed from an ongoing discussion that began nearly three years ago.
Two UM employees filed a lawsuit in 2002, claiming the University was discriminating against them by not offering health insurance to their same-sex partners.
Historically, the University system has provided health benefits for non-married, heterosexual couples at the employee’s expense if the couple signed an affidavit of common-law marriage.
In December 2004, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that gay and lesbian partners of University system employees have the same right to health insurance benefits as heterosexual partners.
“It’s a huge victory for a positive movement for more rights for same-sex couples,” said Lambda Alliance member Bryce Bennett. “It’s long overdue.”
The board dealt with the issue very well, he said. The board could have chosen to just wipe out all non-married benefits rather than extending rights to same-sex couples.