Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Human Resource Management

Department of Human Resource Management

Commonwealth of Virginia Health Benefits Program [1 VAC 55 ‑ 20]

Action	This action will amend section 1VAC 55 320(E) to include adults, other than spouses and incapacitated adult children, as participants in the Health Benefits Plan for State Employees
Stage	NOIRA
Comment Period	Ended on 12/23/2009

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12/10/09 12:26 pm

Commenter: Kelli Palmer, University of Virginia

We need to do this!

I agree with the comments made by Bob Witeck. He said everything that I wanted to say.

Strong, unequivocal support for Virginia benefits plan that mirrors best business practices

Bob Witeck
December 3, 2009

As a Virginia citizen, resident taxpayer and independent business owner, I strongly support the state’s measure to extend access to health insurance coverage to uninsured, eligible members of state employee households who wish to purchase it

Thank you for including my favorable comment and those of many others who are familiar with your sensible, pro-family policy recommendation.

This long-awaited proposal will actually take the public cost off the table by directing our state's insurance vendors to make expanded eligibility possible -- at the expense of the insured household and not at the expense of the state’s taxpayers. This would make affordable health insurance available to more Virginia households and families, and directly to the homes of many of our most valued state employees in agencies and at our top universities and colleges, including my own alma mater, the University of Virginia.

I see this, as many of us do, as a fair-minded policy that is economically prudent as well as pro-business and pro-competitive.

How can Virginia afford to stay out of step? Almost 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies today choose to offer such expanded benefits to their employees. At least 12 Virginia-based Fortune 500 companies and other major employers offer such benefits, including: Altria Group, Capital One, CarMax, Dominion Resources, Genworth, MeadWestvaco, Northrop Grumman/Newport News Shipbuilding, and Owens & Minor.

Sixteen state governments and 152 city and county governments also offer expanded access to health insurance benefits to their employees. So do most leading universities and colleges such as Harvard, Duke, Furman, Wake Forest, Washington & Lee, Georgetown, George Washington, Sweet Briar, Hollins, Penn State, and Davidson – some in Virginia, and some that our universities compete with for top faculty and students.

The state’s policy is widely supported by the American public. In a poll conducted nationally by Harris Interactive in August 2009, more than two-thirds of the 2,700 American adults surveyed agreed that all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, should be able to have their spouse or same-sex adult partner included under their health insurance benefits. State educators have affirmed past public support for equal access to health benefits in league with all Virginia public colleges and universities. Over the years, there have been countless expressions of support from a cross-section of Virginia educators, students, trustees, and alums.

This proposal will not violate the ban on relationship recognition in Virginia's constitution. Instead consider the example in Michigan -- or much closer to home, at Georgetown University in Washington DC, one of our nation's most respected private Catholic universities. Michigan and the Catholic Church do not officially recognize same-sex marriage in any form -- but that did not stand in the way either in Michigan or at Georgetown. As a matter of rightness, economic competitiveness, and basic job and benefits equity, Michigan's universities make health insurance eligibility open to an employee's "other qualified adult," and in Georgetown's case benefits are open to a "legally domiciled adult," who is not the employee's spouse. This is the same approach that Virginia can and should take.

These health plans are smartly crafted under the state proposal. They carefully limit eligibility and coverage to avoid potential abuses and to ensure individuals not entitled to benefits will not receive them. I also am aware that our Governor-Elect Bob McDonnell pointed the way to benefits equity in a 2007 opinion affirming the University of Virginia's ability to offer gym membership benefits to another adult sharing a mutual residence with an employee -- a policy smoothly implemented over the past two years.

This updated benefits policy is about keeping our state a welcoming and fair-minded place to recruit, reward and retain the best public employees, and moreover, to ensure that our best universities remain competitive nationally by mirroring the best practices of Virginia’s top performing corporate leaders. The Commonwealth of Virginia cannot afford to let this opportunity slip – and I strongly urge the state to implement this proposal as soon as possible.

CommentID: 10553