Louisville City Employees’ Domestic Partners to Get Benefits

July 15, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer will sign an executive order that extends health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of Metro Government employees.

The Courier-Journal reports that the order extends medical, dental and vision insurance coverage for qualified adults, which are defined as someone who is unmarried, over 18 years old, not eligible for Medicare, residing in the employee’s household for at least nine months, and financially interdependent with the employee for 12 months or longer. Proof of interdependence can be a joint mortgage, checking account, utility bill statement or apartment lease.  

The news report said the change won’t take effect until next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2012. It is an executive decision that does not require approval of the Metro Council.  

The city’s Human Resources Department estimates that 300 to 400 of the city’s 5,500 employees will take advantage of the new policy, at an estimated cost of about $400,000 a year to city taxpayers.   

“The message I want to send is that we value all people,” Fischer said, according to the Courier-Journal. “The big picture here is that any type of progressive organization needs to have a domestic-partner plan. I don’t want anything to impede or restrain us from attracting the best employees.”

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