Health-plan premium high for Salt Lake County employee designees

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

If an employee wants to add a sibling, ailing parent or domestic partner to his or her health plan, he or she 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 pushing 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.

Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch said the county shouldn't favor one social group over another.

"To the extent that we say we will define family this way, and this is who gets government subsidized health care, we all of a sudden draw a line that if you're not on one side — you are making a distinction that is inappropriate in this day and age of government," Hatch said.

The Republicans insist the new proposal covers a more broad spectrum than Wilson's.

The new health plan is "not so much about rights, but about health care in America," Crockett said.

"Our health care system in this country, in this state and in this county is broken," Crockett said. "We should take the opportunity to do what we can to expand coverage of health care in a responsible way and where we can. That is my priority here."

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, he or she 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