Same-Sex Domestic Partners To Lose State Benefits

WASHINGTON — Maryland state employees in a same-sex domestic partnership will soon be unable to include their partner or their partner’s children on their health insurance, now that the state has legalized same-sex marriage.

No new domestic partners will be able to enroll in state health benefits beginning in July, and in mid-2013, no domestic partners will be covered. About 280 active and retired state workers are covering a same-sex domestic partner, said Robin Sabatini, Maryland Department of Budget and Management chief of staff.

Maryland voters passed the Question 6 referendum in November, which legalized same-sex marriage in the state by upholding the Civil Marriage Protection Act. Same-sex couples could marry beginning Jan. 1, which sparked the change in health care coverage, Sabatini said.

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