Health insurance for domestic partners of City of Ft. Lauderdale employees could become an option as early as Jan. 2012. The issue was taken up by the city commission during its Thursday July 6 conference meeting.
City Manager Lee Feldman advised the commission that giving employees the option of adding domestic partners to the City's self-insured employee health insurance plan could be done with minimal impact on the plan.
â┚¬Å”Our recommendation is if the commission wants to move forward, we'll proceed with the drafting of the right type of resolution,â┚¬Â Feldman said.
The commission agreed and directed city staff to draft a resolution, which could be heard at the next meeting scheduled for Aug. 23, 2011. Feldman advised that giving city employees the option of adding domestic partners to their health insurance plans could go into effect with its new plan year starting January 2012. Open enrollment could begin October 2011.
District 4 Commissioner Romney Rogers expressed concern that adding domestic partners to the city's health insurance may boost the plan's current $1 million deficit.
â┚¬Å”One of the questions that came up in my district meeting is, well, in terms of how do we protect ourselves from abuse,â┚¬Â Rogers asked. â┚¬Å”Because that could be an issue.â┚¬ÂÂ
Mayor John P. â┚¬Å”Jackâ┚¬Â Seiler said that he didn't think there's any indication that adding domestic partners in itself is going to create a higher risk factor on the health plan. He made the analogy that that adding domestic partners to the plan is not any different than hiring 90 new employees that happened to be married or adding 30 employees that happened to have two children each.
â┚¬Å”Let's see if we can't get this thing done and implemented,â┚¬Â Seiler said.
Miriam Richter, a self-employed attorney who has been in domestic partner relationship with a city employee for 17 years has made the issue her personal crusade.
â┚¬Å”I've always said you can't be gay and not a community activist,â┚¬Â Richter said. â┚¬Å”I think it comes with the territory.â┚¬ÂÂ
Michael Rajner, legislative director for the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, thanked the commission for moving on the issue.
â┚¬Å”Whether you hire someone who's married or in a domestic partnership, you want to make sure that the employee has all the resources to provide their family so they can function at a higher level while on the job,â┚¬Â Rajner told the commission. â┚¬Å”By implementing a domestic partnership for its employees, Ft. Lauderdale will join many other cities and counties and businesses doing the same.â┚¬ÂÂ
Broward County government has allowed employees to add domestic partners since 1999.
Editor's note: Ed Donato is a reporter with the South Florida Gay News and this article is used with permission.
