Gay couples find
obstacles on benefits
Many N.J. employers
won't provide health coverage to civil unions
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG,
nj.com from the Web, April 15, 2007
Shannan Hauser and Jennifer Bonfilio
of Hamilton say they will form a civil union in two weeks. In theory, it
should give them the same benefits that married couples have.
So when the law creating civil unions took effect last month, Bonfilio, who pays
$431 a month for health insurance, inquired about being added as a beneficiary
on Hauser's medical plan at the New Jersey Carpenters Funds.
"I called to ask if they were going to be honoring that law and providing me
with the same coverage that they would any married couple, and I was told no,"
Bonfilio said. "The woman on the phone actually said to me: 'We do
not have to obey New Jersey law.'"
Many other same-sex couples in civil unions are encountering similar problems.
At the gay rights organization Lambda Legal, attorney David Buckel said he has
gotten scores of complaints, mostly concerning refusals to provide couples in
civil unions with the same health benefits provided to married couples.
Buckel said in some cases, employers are refusing to provide benefits because
they simply don't know the law. In others, he added, self-insured
employers or unions are using a federal law that allows -- but does not require
-- denial of coverage for same-sex couples.
In either case, he blames the state's decision to label the relationships of
committed same-sex couples "civil unions" rather than marriages.
"In the employment sector in particular, folks don't understand civil unions,
and then when they come to understand what they are they find ways to disrespect
them," Buckel said. "After all, the state has said that these
relationships aren't worthy of marriage."
Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said
his organization has gotten 26 complaints. A total of 219 civil unions
were performed in New Jersey during the law's first month.
"Civil unions are not being consistently recognized by employers," Goldstein
said. "It's heartbreaking."
Earlier this year, the state Department of Banking and Insurance issued a
bulletin telling employers and unions that if they provide health coverage to
their employees' spouses, they must also provide it to their civil union
partners. It also told them not to wait until their policy's renewal date
but to begin providing coverage on Feb. 19, the day the civil union law took
effect.
But it added that New Jersey's law "does not alter federal law, which only
confers marriage rights and privileges to opposite-sex married couples."
That is the loophole into which Bonfilio and Hauser have fallen.
"We're subject to federal law," said George Laufenberg, administrative manager
of the New Jersey Carpenters Funds, which covers Hauser, a union carpenter.
"Our understanding is we would not have to change our eligibility at this time
to cover civil unions, but that's not to say the trustees wouldn't consider it."
So far, Laufenberg said, the union has not received a written request for health
coverage from a couple already in a civil union. Bonfilio, who is
self-employed and provides closed-captioning for television, said she is
considering a written appeal, but "we've put it on the back burner until after
we're CU'd."
Laufenberg said if the trustees do opt to provide health coverage for civil
unions, the federal law "doesn't preclude us."
Buckel said many employers argue -- erroneously -- that federal law prevents
them from providing health benefits to same-sex couples. He said in
Massachusetts, the only state that allows same-sex couples to marry, gay rights
groups had to convince employers subject to federal law that they could, and
should, provide equal benefits to same-sex spouses.
Buckel said a similar process of educating employers will be required in New
Jersey.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), a co-sponsor of the bill creating civil
unions, said it established a commission to review its implementation.
"We created that so we could have a formal way for people to present problems
that might come out of this that we might have to correct legislatively,"
Weinberg said.
The commission, however, has not yet been constituted, Weinberg said.
No formal complaints about civil unions have been made to Division of Civil
Rights, said David Wald, spokesman for the state Attorney General's office.
Robert Schwaneberg may be reached at rschwaneberg@starledger.com
or (609) 989-0324.
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