The University of Maine system is in the process of expanding its health insurance coverage to extend the same benefits to unmarried heterosexual couples that are now enjoyed by married couples and unmarried same sex couples. These benefits apply only to employees and faculty of the University of Maine System and their domestic partners, and not students and domestic partners. The new policy is not yet in effect. Anthem, the insurer, must seek approval from the Maine bureau of insurance before it can be implemented. This doesn’t really seem to be an obstacle since the bureau approved insurance for unmarried same sex couples, according to Tracy Bigney, executive director of human resources for the University of Maine System. Approval may take several months.
For Mathew Bamton, associate professor of geography/anthropology and proud father of a nine-month-old baby girl, the policy change is huge. “I was deeply concerned about the current inequitable health insurance policy. I am delighted that I will be able to extend my healthcare benefits to my entire family in the same manner that my colleagues in the gay and lesbian community and married colleagues currently are.”
Thirty couples have been covered since the original 1996 policy went into effect covering same sex couples. That number is expected to triple with the addition of unmarried heterosexual couples. The average cost of insurance coverage for a couple is roughly $475 per month through Anthem. The University of Maine system covers 90 percent of that cost to employees, faculty members and their spouses or domestic partners. The estimated cost to the University system for the policy change will be around $135,000 annually. Approximately 10,000 individuals are covered under current UMS policy at a cost of $31,000,000.
The $135,000 that the policy change will cost UMS is not included in the major increase in healthcare costs that prompted plans to slash over $1.5 million from the 2002/2003 operating budget at USM.
Stuart Koretsky can be contact at: [email protected]