California Sued Over Same-Sex Health Care Benefits

: Image by lez get real via Flickr

4/14/10-by Paula Brooks
In another challenge to the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), California’s public pension fund, CalPERS and the Internal Revenue Service, have been sued by three same-sex couples in that state who are seeking to make long-term care insurance benefits available to the same-sex spouses of state government workers.

The suit, filed a San Francisco federal court yesterday, by the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center on behalf of the three married couples claims the California Public Employees’ Retirement System is violating the couples’ civil rights by making same-sex spouses ineligible for the program.

The suit challenges a federal law that authorized states to set up long-term care plans for their employees that provided its members lower rates than the private market offers by allowing employees to use pretax dollars to pay premiums and deduct future benefits – including the costs of in-home care or nursing homes – from their taxes.

In 2005, California granted spousal benefits to same-sex domestic partners except for one major exemption, they could not be part of the long-term care tax credit program because it is authorized by federal law.

Because it is a federal program, the law allows for enrollment of virtually any member of a family – except a same-sex partner. To otherwise, says the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, would cause the program to lose federal tax status if it admitted same-sex partners, since DOMA forbids federal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Denying same-sex partners insurance coverage that would be available to any other family member “disrespects (their) marital and familial relationships, and constitutes irrational discrimination,” the suit says.