UH to offer benefits The University of Hawaii faculty union will expand its health plan to include same-sex partners.
to same-sex couples
Health benefits will be available
next month but can be offered
for only 1 year by lawBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comThe benefits will be available beginning next month, but by law can be offered for only a year, according to J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH Professional Assembly.
In July 2003 the state will begin offering a new Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund that will place all public employees into a single insurance group instead of continuing to contribute to the unions' health plans, a move Musto calls a joke.
The union plans "have been consistently better and less expensive than the health fund plan," Musto said.
Nevertheless, as the public unions wait to see the new health fund and the effects of pending budget cuts, UHPA has decided to move ahead with offering the domestic-partner benefits the board approved years ago, because "we want to make a statement that it should happen," Musto said.
Unlike the "reciprocal benefits" offered by the state, which allow for a variety of domestic situations, the UHPA plan will be aimed at same-sex partners.
"In essence, you are treated in the same way that legal marriages are treated," Musto said.
However, because the state does not recognize domestic partnerships, it will contribute toward only the employee's coverage, and the domestic-partner fee will have to be paid out of pocket, Musto said.
UHPA will be offering a three-tiered health plan, with rates for single employees, couples and families.
"It's a great thing, and I think this is going to matter to quite a few people," said UH math professor and UHPA treasurer Tom Ramsey, an advocate for civil rights for gays and lesbians.
"It should be a matter of state law, available to all state and county employees, but having UHPA (offer the benefits) is a good place to start."
Ramsey said some people may be reluctant to take advantage of the benefits, as has occurred at other colleges and universities that offer domestic-partner plans, for fear of discrimination.
But while there is discrimination, "there's probably less of it in the university environment than anywhere else," Ramsey said.
The people most likely to fear discrimination are those involved in custody battles over their children, he said.
Groups that have been outspoken in their opposition to same-sex unions in the past will not be taking a position on the UHPA benefits.
"It's their business," said John Hoag, a former UH regent and head of the now-dissolved Save Traditional Marriage 1998. "That's a social rights issue that doesn't really affect us."
Kelli Rosati, executive director of the Hawaii Family Forum, also said that her group will not take a position because it tends to stick to legislative issues.
The Human Rights Campaign, which works for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights, lists only 164 colleges and universities that offer domestic-partner health benefits.
University of Hawaii
