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College: Pet Insurance Yes, Gay Partner
Insurance No
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 27, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Palm Beach, Florida) After rejecting a
proposal earlier this year to provide health benefits to the same-sex domestic
partners of its employees Palm Beach
Community College has decided to offer workers insurance for their pets.
Anyone who works for the college would be able to
enroll in the pet insurance plan, through Veterinary Pet Insurance. It would
cost employees between $22 and $28 per month for dogs and $15 to $18 per month for
cats.
The plan will come into effect on January 8.
LGBT civil rights group the Palm Beach County Human Rights
Council called the decision an outrage coming just months after the college's Board of Trustees
deadlocked on domestic partner benefits.
"While many pet owners consider their dogs and cats part of their families,
there is a basic disconnect when an employer will insure an employee's pet but
not an employee's partner," Deidre Newton, a PBCC alumnus who is now vice president of the
human rights council, told the Sun-Sentinel.
Last August a proposal to provide domestic
partner benefits died when the trustees deadlocked in a 2-2 vote.
Partner benefits would not cost the college any
additional money. It pays only the premiums for employees. Under the current
scheme workers pay the added premium for spouses or children. The domestic
partner proposal would have mirrored that - making gay and lesbian employees
responsible for paying the added premium costs.
When the board deadlocked the trustees asked
staff to collect more information on the potential impact of the benefits and
another vote is expected in 2008 to add the benefits the following year.
Still the human rights council says taking up pet
insurance now was highly insensitive.
"The only distinction I
can see is one covers human beings in committed relationships, and the other
covers animals in committed relationships," said council president
Rand Hoch.
A majority of the nation’s largest
corporations, and a growing number of universities and colleges provide health
insurance for domestic partners of employees.
©365Gay.com 2007
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