On Nov. 10, the University of Central Florida (UCF) board of trustees unanimously approved a plan to help the university's gay employees pay for health insurance for their domestic partners.
According to UCF spokesman Chad Binette, UCF is the fifth of 11 Florida state universities to offer domestic partner benefits.
â┚¬Å”State law prohibits UCF from offering benefits in the form of coverage through traditional health plans, so we will be providing stipends to employees,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”Stipends will be available beginning in early 2012.â┚¬ÂÂ
Binette said the school researched benefits that other universities provide to domestic partners and UCF's plan is similar. Rollins College, Valencia College and Stetson University are among Central Florida's schools that already provide these types of benefits.
â┚¬Å”Eligibility requirements include that the employee and his or her same-sex partner have shared financial responsibilities and that the partner is either not employed or not eligible for health benefits through his or her employer,â┚¬Â Binette said.
That aspect is coming under criticism. UCF faculty union's chief negotiator, Jim Gildeson, told the Orlando Sentinel that that stipulation doesn't apply to benefits for spouses of heterosexual couples, calling the UCF plan â┚¬Å”inadequate.â┚¬ÂÂ
According to Binette, the projected cost for the plan for the first year is about $60,000, assuming estimates of 10 employees enrolled are correct. The stipend amount is the difference between the university’s contribution for individual coverage of an employee under his or her health plan and the university’s contribution for family coverage under that same plan, or the actual cost of the partner's health care coverageâ┚¬â€Âwhichever totals less.
â┚¬Å”One other change is that employees will now be able to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner, as well as the partner’s parents and children,â┚¬Â Binette said.
He added that the current plan is a â┚¬Å”first stepâ┚¬Â which will be reevaluated regularly going forward.
