HR 4.8 OPPORTUNITIES FOR DOMESTIC PARTNERS - HEALTH CARE COVERAGE

WHEREAS, the AFT Plus Member Benefits programs offers AFT members many valuable insurance, financial investment and consumer-oriented benefits that are enjoyed by many of our members; and

WHEREAS, AFT members utilize and respect the AFT Plus Member Benefits because the AFT actively evaluates and screens potential and existing programs. AFT members know that the benefits offered have been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers and are representative of the many advantages of being a member of the AFT; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is proud of the place it has traditionally held at the vanguard of the human rights movement; and

WHEREAS, the AFT consistently has recognized the struggles of gay, lesbian and bisexual people to obtain equal rights and to end the prejudice and discrimination that they often face; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has joined many governmental entities and private businesses by offering health insurance benefits to its employees regardless of sexual orientation. The AFT staff contract states that "any health insurance...for which an employee's spouse and or family members are entitled or eligible shall also be available to an employee's same-sex domestic partner"; and

WHEREAS, many employers, including Lotus Development and Levi Strauss, HBO and the city of Seattle, have found that costs incurred by offering domestic partner health insurance are the same or less than that of spousal or other dependent coverage; and

WHEREAS, at present all optional health insurance benefits offered by the AFT Members Plus program do not offer the same non-discriminatory opportunities to AFT members:

RESOLVED, that the AFT and the AFT Plus Member Benefits program continue their historic practice of standing in the vanguard of the human rights movement by advocating the extension of health insurance benefits to all its members regardless of sexual orientation; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT Plus program require that its insurance purveyors make available to all AFT members equal health insurance coverage opportunities for domestic, same-sex partners and their dependents as it does those with spousal relations.

(Executive Council)