Salt Lake benefits plan gets final OK

Pending approval from the city's insurer, Salt Lake City employees will be able to enroll adult siblings, roommates, parents, friends or romantic partners for insurance through the city.

The City Council gave final approval Tuesday night for a plan that would allow city employees to designate an adult who can be part of the employee's insurance plan. The measure passed unanimously.

"Families (that) are support systems sometimes come in non-traditional packages," said Jill Remington Love, the council member who first broached the idea in July. "With this ordinance, we are offering our city employees the opportunity to recognize someone in their household they can be in a long-term caring relationship with."

The city would offer coverage through the Public Employees Health Plan (PEHP), which the city already uses for roughly 2,900 employees, and expand the categories of people who can enroll to allow an additional 58 to 96 people access to the plan. Employees first must show joint financial obligations such as car or house loans, joint checking accounts or credit cards, or mutual beneficiaries on life insurance policies. It's estimated to cost the city between $140,000 and $225,000.

Before the council can start enrolling people, PEHP likely will issue a decision about whether the plan meets PEHP's criteria for coverage, said Jennifer Bruno, a policy analyst for the council. If not, the council may have to come up with a new plan, she said.

The council developed the adult-designee idea after Mayor Rocky Anderson proposed a similar measure which would have offered insurance exclusively to unmarried couples with a strong emphasis on equality for homosexual partners. Anderson's executive order in September would have covered between 10 and 22 people and would have cost the city between $17,000 and $63,000.

"My proposal was simply to provide equity for employees regardless of marital status or sexual orientation," Anderson said. The City Council's plan "dodges the issue of equality altogether."

Eric Jergensen, one of the council members on a subcommittee that hammered out the ordinance, said the council did not dodge equality issues and the council's plan does not shun gay or lesbian rights.

"We are pro-employees, pro providing quality of life," Jergensen said.

PEHP asked a judge to decide whether Anderson's order was legal, and then an Arizona law group and several Salt Lake residents sued to block the order. Third District Court Judge Stephen Roth heard the case Jan. 5 and has not yet ruled.