Employers cutting domestic partner benefits after gay weddings

[CShine]

BOSTON -- Now that it's about to be legal for same-sex couples to marry, some Massachusetts employers are eliminating domestic partner benefits offered to gay workers, requiring them to say "I do" if they want to keep their partner on their health plan.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the state's largest employers, will drop domestic partner benefits for Massachusetts residents at the end of this year, as will Babson College.

"The original reason for domestic partner benefits was to recognize that same-sex couples could not marry," Beth Israel spokesman Jerry Berger said. "Now that they can, they are essentially on the same footing as heterosexual couples."

Employers are not legally required to offer such benefits. Those that do typically require employees and their partner to sign paperwork, in some cases an affidavit, stating that they live together and are financially interdependent.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/04/28/employers_cutting_domestic_partner_benefits_after_gay_weddings/

[w4rma]

1. Sounds like the right thing to do. (nt)

[Lavalamp]

2. Sounds fine

but if Mass denies same sex marriage in 2006 I would hope they will return this.