Continued Health Insurance
When an employee with a different-sex spouse loses or leaves a job, employers are required to offer the employee – and the spouse – the opportunity to pay for continued health coverage for up to 18 months.
But when a LGBT employee loses or leaves a job, federal law does not guarantee the opportunity to pay for continued coverage for a domestic partner (or a partner's children), even if the employer-sponsored plan originally covered that partner (or the partner's children). This is true even though the former employee – and not the employer – pays the premium for this temporary coverage.
Fortunately, some fair-minded employers have taken it upon themselves to extend health coverage to domestic partners of former employees. But until the federal law is updated to recognize same-sex couples, GLBT families cannot count on such protections in times of job transitions.
What HRC is Doing
The Human Rights Campaign lobbies Congress for the guarantee of equal health care coverage under COBRA. HRC urges Congress to require employers to provide COBRA coverage to any beneficiaries covered under an employee's benefits plan – including a domestic partner – and encourages employers to offer continued coverage to all beneficiaries of their employee benefits plan.
