June 17, 2003

Philip Cass, Ph.D., Chair
Household Benefits Committee
HHBCommittee@aol.com

Dear Dr. Cass:

Thank you for sending me the draft report of the Household Benefits Committee.  It is obvious that the committee has spent a lot of time and effort to find a way to remove moral objections to the extension of health benefits to domestic partners and other adult household members.

The report is professionally done and quite thorough. 

I am familiar with domestic partner plans and extended family plans offered by public and private employers throughout the nation.  Even the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco provides household health benefits, but not at a price higher than spousal benefits.

There are two areas of the report with which I take exception: (1) the implication that spousal relationships should automatically be more privileged under public policy than other familial relationships such as a parent and adult child or two long-term domestic partners; and (2) the suggestion that an employee who adds one unmarried adult to his or her health plan might have to pay more for this benefit than an employee who obtains coverage for a spouse. 

At the end of this note is a news story which I have just published on the website of our association: www.unmarriedamerica.org.  In it I explain the objections to the report mentioned above.

Please feel free to share these comments with the Committee members, the City Council, and the Mayor.  I know that you are trying to find a way to gain more health coverage for more people in the city.  That is a laudable goal, but it should be done in a way that shows respect for family diversity, provides equal pay for equal work, and does not reinforce and perpetuate marital status discrimination. 

These concerns would be satisfied if the city were to allow each employee to add one adult household member to his or her health plan, and at a cost which does not charge more for an unmarried household beneficiary than for a spouse.  Such a plan would be morally, politically, and legally sound. 

 Respectfully yours,

Thomas F. Coleman
Executive Director
American Association for Single People
P.O. Box 11030, Glendale, CA 91226
(800) 993-2277