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Poll: a Third of Employers Back Gay Health Benefits
Thu Jun 24,12:23 PM ET
By Kim Dixon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A third of U.S. employers would extend health benefits to same-sex spouses, in the wake of a Massachusetts court's backing gay marriage and after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) sidestepped the issue, a poll found on Thursday.
The survey of human resources officials at 216 companies found that 33 percent would be willing to extend health benefits to same-sex spouses, according to consulting firm Aon Corp.
The poll found that "if an employee requested that a health benefit plan recognize a same-gender spouse," the company would grant that request, according to Aon, which advises companies on employee benefits issues.
About 40 percent of companies said they do not intend to honor such requests and about 28 percent said they didn't know what they would do. (The numbers slightly exceed 100 percent, due to rounding.)
"It is such a politicized issue that there will be more pressure on employers to examine their plans and look at the issue, or provide the benefits in the future," said Paul Sullivan, an assistant vice president at Aon. "It is not an issue that is going to go away."
Aon collected the anonymous results over the past two weeks. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
PRIVATE SECTOR AHEAD OF POLICY
President Bush (news - web sites) in February called on Congress to approve a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, after Massachusetts' highest court ruled gay couples had the right to wed and San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
A vote in the U.S. Senate is scheduled next month on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, though Republicans admit they lack the votes to pass it. Many Democrats say the issue should be left to the states to decide.
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to block the start of gay marriages in Massachusetts, when it denied without comment a bid for an injunction by conservative groups.
Regardless of public policy, the private sector seems to be moving in the direction of providing health benefits, according to some studies.
The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said by the end of 2003, 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies offered health benefits for same-sex domestic partners. In 1998, just 13 percent of the Fortune 500 offered the benefits.
COST ISSUES
Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co. began providing health benefits for same-sex domestic partners in 1999, according to spokeswoman Linda Ulrey.
And despite double-digit rises in health-care costs, P&G did not see any significant change in benefit costs, she said. "It was a small section of our employees."
In the Aon study, about 45 percent of the companies had taken a look at their benefit plans to determine whether the term "spouse" could include a same-gender spouse.
Aon's poll included about 30 companies with more than 10,000 workers, and about 66 companies with fewer than 500 employees. About 11 percent of the companies provide health coverage for same-sex domestic partners.
The survey also found that just 14 percent of the same companies would be willing to extend retirement benefits to same-sex spouses.
The biggest roadblock to granting those benefits is the U.S. tax code, the poll found. Employers fear extending these benefits would violate the federal Defense of Marriage Act.