Pa professors move
ahead of the pack
on same-sex health
benefits
MARTHA RAFFAELE. AP
from philly.com on the Web, July 7, 2007
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- For gay and
lesbian faculty at Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities, the wait for
health care benefits that cover their partners is almost over.
Domestic-partner health insurance was added outright to the menu of fringe
benefits in a tentative contract agreement the faculty union reached last week
with the State System of Higher Education.
If the union and the system's board ratify the pact in the coming weeks, the
professors will become the first unionized state employees to receive
domestic-partner health benefits.
Rita Drapkin, a tenured professor at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
said that means her partner of 30 years will no longer have to pay for more
expensive private health insurance that covers only catastrophic illness.
"We've waited a long time for it, but it's about more than the money," said
Drapkin, a psychologist at IUP's counseling center. "It's about not being
second-class citizens."
The old contract that covered the 5,500 members of the Association of
Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties included the prospect of
same-sex health care benefits, but said the system would provide them only if
the state extended similar benefits to other unionized state workers.
That didn't happen.
It is up to the board of the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, which
oversees state workers' health care benefits, to decide whether to provide
domestic-partner health insurance to unions representing tens of thousands of
employees.
Two years ago, the fund's board , prompted partly by persistent lobbying by the
state system faculty union , voted to study the possibility of offering health
coverage to same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples who live
together. The board set no deadline for completing the study, however, and
it has been occupied since then with other concerns relating to the fund's
revenue, said David Fillman, the board's chairman.
"It got put on hold," said Fillman, who is also executive director of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The notion of providing benefits to same-sex partners of public employees has
rankled conservative Republican state lawmakers, who tried unsuccessfully in
recent years to advance legislation that would ban them.
Last week, an activist with an organization that opposes same-sex relationships
criticized the domestic partner health insurance provision of the state system's
tentative agreement.
"The promotion of domestic partner benefits is not about good business, but
about bowing under the pressure exerted from those trying to equate same-sex
partnerships to marriage," Diane Gramley, of the American Family Association of
Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "They are not the same and any business
that works to undermine marriage will ultimately suffer the financial
consequences."
For now, the benefits trust fund is adhering to a state law that bans gay
marriage in determining who is eligible for benefits, said Kate Farley, the
fund's executive director.
University administrators had "fully expected" that by the end of the faculty
union's old contract they would be providing domestic-partner benefits to
professors in same-sex relationships who met certain other criteria, system
spokesman Kenn Marshall said.
Marshall acknowledged that the issue remained a loose end in the most recent
negotiations.
"This time it was still on the table, and there was still a position that (the
union) wanted these benefits," Marshall said. "We thought it was
appropriate."
The system estimates that only 1 percent of the union will take advantage of the
benefits, costing the universities about $380,000 in a contract valued at $437
million, Marshall said.
A number of other public and private universities in Pennsylvania already offer
domestic-partner benefits, including Penn State University, where about two
dozen of 40,000 employees have signed up for them.
The lack of such benefits in the state system has hurt its efforts to fill
faculty vacancies, turning off not only applicants in same-sex relationships but
also those who simply believe that not offering them is discriminatory, union
president Pat Heilman said.
"It's a larger competitive problem than people think," Heilman said.
Martha Raffaele covers state government for The Associated
Press in Harrisburg. She can be reached at mraffaele(at)ap.org.
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