County passes costly 'adult designee' benefit package

Domestic partners and other "adult designees" of Salt Lake County employees will get health care, but it will cost a pretty penny.

If an employee wants to add a sibling, ailing parent or domestic partner to their health plan, they will have to pay the full deductible of the person they are adding. That adds up to anywhere between $347 to $524 a month for health care and $16 a month for dental.

"It's cost prohibitive," Councilwoman Jenny Wilson said. "You're better off self-insured."

The proposal is nothing like the one Wilson has been proposing since she first came into office three years ago.

Her proposal would have treated these so-called adult designees the same way immediate family members are treated in the county's health plan — with full coverage.

But the Republicans didn't like her proposal, saying it didn't make economic sense and that it threatened the core values of the family. Councilman Mark Crockett substituted Wilson's program, and it was approved on a party-line vote.

"Fewer of the population have the, quote, 'traditional family,' but I still think it's important to encourage that, and to support and sustain that," Councilman Jeff Allen said.

To qualify for the new health-care plan, someone must live with a county employee for more than a year or be claimed as an IRS dependent on the employee's taxes. However, they will have to pay the full premium without a county contribution.

Now county fiscal analysts will go to work and determine the costs of implementing Crockett's proposal, and Crockett said he'd like it included in the 2009 health plan.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com