Same-sex partners to get long-term care benefits, federal personnel office says

The Washington Post: Same-sex domestic partners of federal employees will next month be able to apply for long-term health insurance provided to government workers through the Office of Personnel Management, officials said Tuesday. "OPM said same-sex couples can visit www.ltcfeds.com to complete a form that states they are each other's domestic partner and intend to stay together indefinitely. The federal worker must submit the form to their employer. Couples will not be required to provide further proof of the relationship, OPM said, because that 'would impose a greater burden on domestic partners than other qualified relatives.'" Only long-term care insurance will be available to these same-sex partners. They will not be able to apply for other federal workers' health benefits (O'Keefe, 6/2).

Government Executive: "The personnel agency rejected several recommended changes to the draft rule," - issued in September - "including requests to grant opposite-sex domestic partners access to long-term care as well. Opposite-sex partners have the option of getting married if they want to qualify for federal benefits, OPM said" (Gruber, 6/1).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.