Western Kentucky University to Offer Domestic Partner Benefits

April 5, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Western Kentucky University will begin offering health insurance to qualifying dependents — including domestic partners — of its employees, starting next year.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that Tony Glisson, WKU’s director of human resources, sent an email to faculty and staff last week announcing the school’s Employee Benefits Advisory Committee approved a motion to extend health coverage to qualifying “other dependents” who live with employees. The change would encompass same and opposite sex partners, Glisson told the newspaper.  

The new coverage will be effective January 1, 2011. Eligibility details are still being worked out.  

WKU is the fourth public university in Kentucky to extend health benefits to its employees’ domestic partners. Although legislators tried to stop it, the University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky University began offering domestic-partner benefits to employees in 2007 and 2008 (see Kentucky Senate Passes Domestic Partner Benefits Ban).

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