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.

In the last numerous years hundreds and thousands of employers across the country have started offering domestic partner benefits and the number of employers is still growing. There is valid anticipation by employment experts that this new trend will continue as small companies begun to follow the lead of large employers that have introduced domestic partner benefit plan in the recent months.

Several state and local laws have currently been passed in favor of domestic partner rights. States like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle do have ordinances that require all businesses with municipal contracts to offer same-sex benefits for unmarried couples. The country's first "civil union" law has been recently achieved in Vermont.

Benefits that the state's married couples are entitled with, are by this Law being extended to same-sex couples as well. As of now we can say that Prearrangements about health insurance are still being written and the result is still unknown.

Variation is visible in coverage depending upon 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. It depends on the employer to decide about the characterization of domestic partner. Same-Sex couples, unmarried opposite-sex couples, and common law marriages are included by other companies.

Some employers have kept a pre-requisite for same-sex partners to cover that only opposite-sex couples can receive spousal benefits by getting married, while same-sex couples do not have this option.Mindless of how the term is being described, employers make it mandatory for domestic partner to sign an affidavit which clearly states an assurance that they are in a lasting and committed relationship. Another pre-requisite is also mentioned by employers that a couple live together for a specified period of time before they are qualified for the benefits a domestic partner can basically get.

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