The thorny issue of offering employee benefits to nonmarried couples reached the Geneva Library Board last week, and board members made the right decision.
The board voted 4-1 to offer health insurance to domestic partners of employees only if the employees paid the full cost of the coverage. The library pays 75 percent of the health coverage for spouses of married employees.
The library’s health insurance is provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield, as leveraged through the Library Insurance Management and Risk Control Combination. Blue Cross has guidelines for providing benefits to domestic partners, including that they be at least 18 years old, have lived together for at least six months, and do not already have a spouse or another domestic partner.
Board member Don Cummings voted against requiring domestic partners to pay the full costs of health insurance. He said he wanted the board to draft the guidelines provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield, but other members were concerned about rising costs and potential fraud with such a policy.
The board has better things to do with its money and time. It should not fund health benefits for domestic partners, and it should reserve such weighty issue to the General Assembly.
