Washington, DC – (July 20, 2012) – Family Equality Council, the national organization that connects, supports, and represents the one million parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) today praised the Obama Administration and the Office of Personnel Management for taking steps to provide health care coverage for the children of federal employees in domestic partnerships.
A proposed rule change, published by the Office of Personnel Management today, would amend the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) regulations and allow federal employees to cover the children of their same-sex domestic partners under the program. The rule change, the result of more than a year of advocacy by the Family Equality Council, means that all federal employees’ children up to age 26 can now be covered under an FEHB plan regardless of their legal relationship to the covered parent.
“Most of the two million children raised by LGBT parents live in states where their parents cannot marry, cannot secure legal ties to their own kids and cannot get their children covered under a health insurance plan,” said Emily Hecht McGowan, Family Equality Council Public Policy Director. “This rule change means that federal workers can now be assured that a high fever, broken arm or debilitating illness won’t jeopardize their child’s health or their family’s finances.”
Chrisler added, “We look forward to the day when full implementation of the Affordable Care Act guarantees that more of our families have the same health care protections as their friends and neighbors.”
Contact: Steve Majors | Communications Director
202.664.0079 | smajors@familyequality.org