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UF requirement for partner benefits: You must have sex
Gainsville Sun ^ | 1/23/06 | JACK STRIPLING

Posted on 01/23/2006 7:40:24 AM PST by Millee

niversity of Florida employees have to pledge that they're having sex with their domestic partners before qualifying for benefits under a new health care plan at the university.

The partners of homosexual and heterosexual employees are eligible for coverage under UF's plan, which will take effect in February. The enrollment process began this month, and some employees have expressed concern about an affidavit that requires a pledge of sexual activity.

Fielding questions about the pledge at a Faculty Senate meeting Thursday, UF's vice president of human resources said he's heard concerns about the affidavit, though overall feedback about the plan has been positive.

"I would say 95 percent of the affidavit is fine," Kyle Cavanaugh said in an interview after the meeting.

In addition to declaring joint financial obligations, prospective enrollees must "have been in a non-platonic relationship for the preceding 12 months," according to the affidavit.

Marylou Behnke, a UF senator, told Cavanaugh she found the requirement "offensive."

As a member of the Senate, representing faculty in UF's College of Medicine, Behnke said she was compelled to learn more about UF's plan. She said she was taken aback to find that employees would be required to swear to prior sexual activity, a standard not applied to married couples covered by UF's primary health care plan.

"Are you going to police it?" Behnke asked Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh said he had no plans to personally enforce the sex pledge. The "non-platonic" clause is "increasingly standard" in domestic partnership plans, Cavanaugh said. The clause is one of several methods used to legally ensure that an employer is only obligated to cover employees in a committed relationship, not longtime roommates.

Shands HealthCare, which began offering domestic partnership benefits this month, also requires that employees declare a "non-platonic" relationship. Shands is an affiliate of UF, supporting the university's education and research efforts, but it is a private nonprofit entity with an independent health care plan. Like UF, Shands chose to offer domestic partnership benefits in order to stay competitive, said Kim Rose, Shands spokeswoman. Rose said she did not know whether Shands' Board of Directors, which approved the plan, was influenced by UF's decision to offer domestic benefits.

Concerns about the "non-platonic" clause may lead UF to change the language of the affidavit, Cavanaugh said.

"I would anticipate we would take a hard look at trying to modify it," he said.

Any modifications to the plan won't likely be made in the first enrollment cycle, which ends Jan. 30, Cavanaugh said. But by October, when employees enroll for benefits again, there may be changes to the affidavit, he said.

Between five and 10 people have enrolled in the plan already, Cavanaugh said, and more than 100 have attended orientations to learn about the benefits. UF officials anticipate that as many as 120 people will enroll in the plan, which will cost the university about $1 million a year.

Confidentiality is promised to UF employees enrolled in any health care plan, but Behnke said she had concerns about whether the affidavit might lead to discrimination if it ended up in the wrong hands. Pledging an active homosexual relationship, as the affidavit requires for gay couples, could potentially bar an individual from participation in organizations like the Boy Scouts or the military, Behnke said.

Kim Tanzer, chair of the Faculty Senate, said she could understand why some faculty might view the affidavit as invasive.

"I can see (Behnke's) point," she said. "If you ask married folks if they're in a platonic relationship, that's a personal question."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda
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To: ClearCase_guy

Man: "C'mon honey, if we don't do it, we'll lose our health plan!"

Woman: "OK, but I didn't shave my legs this week..."


21 posted on 01/23/2006 7:59:47 AM PST by RockinRight (Attention RNC...we're the party of Reagan, not FDR...)
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To: LIConFem

"I'd be interested in knowing how they'd verify this."

I thought the agenda was to keep government *out* of the bedroom. Is it anyone's business with whom I sleep -- or don't sleep?


22 posted on 01/23/2006 7:59:52 AM PST by No Truce With Kings (The opinions expressed are mine! Mine! MINE! All Mine!)
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To: Millee

UF is crossing the line here.

The subject of partners having/not having sex is not black and white.


23 posted on 01/23/2006 8:01:14 AM PST by peacebaby (thanks for reminding me that it's not about me)
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To: Lazamataz

sliding scale...

So what if my hubby and I have sex 3,4,5 times a week. Do we get a deduction in premiums?


24 posted on 01/23/2006 8:02:47 AM PST by peacebaby (thanks for reminding me that it's not about me)
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To: Millee

Um....What if they want to get the kids covered? Or is that next?


25 posted on 01/23/2006 8:02:51 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Millee

What will be the impact of legalizing same sex marriage on the nation's Socialist Security system?

For every gay couple that looses one of it's partners to death - the survivor would be able to claim the benefits just as one's wife/children would.

Wouldn't this instantly balloon the demands on an already heading-for-a-train-wreck Ponzi scheme, that has, and would continue to serve as the reelection slush fund of the democRATS that foisted it upon Americans in the first place?

No wonder Dems are for it - it further increases their power to continue buying votes with redistribution.


26 posted on 01/23/2006 8:03:19 AM PST by Marxbites (Freedom is the negation of Govt to the maximum extent possible)
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To: ClearCase_guy

As I remember it, under the definition of sex used in that deposition, one party to a act could be considered to be having sex while the other would not be. But I'm trying to erase the details from my mind . . .


27 posted on 01/23/2006 8:04:01 AM PST by cvq3842
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To: Millee
I imagine in the past small numbers of people mooched off of the special consideration given to marriage benefits. And some single people used to grumble that they were being penalized. You know what I said to them? T. S., Eliot.

But there followed a slippery slope driven primarily by liberalism's fetish with nondiscrimination and we have now arrived at 100% absurdity. People feel no compunction about signing a piece of paper saying they are domestic partners to grab a few bucks.

28 posted on 01/23/2006 8:04:17 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: babyface00
I can foresee a group of guys or girls who graduate from college and end up rooming together. First one who gets a job w/insurance claims the rest as "partners" and gets health insurance in return for beer....

And sex, apparently...

29 posted on 01/23/2006 8:04:43 AM PST by gridlock (It's not really a circus until Teddy Kennedy steps out of the clown car...)
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To: peacebaby
So what if my hubby and I have sex 3,4,5 times a week. Do we get a deduction in premiums?

If you have sex 345 times a week, I want to enter you in the Guiness Books.

30 posted on 01/23/2006 8:05:02 AM PST by Lazamataz (I have a Chinese family renting an apartment from me. They are lo mein tenants.)
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To: Millee

Takes more than a hat to make a cowboy.


31 posted on 01/23/2006 8:07:06 AM PST by Old Professer (Fix the problem, not the blame!)
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To: Millee
"Are you going to police it?" Behnke asked Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh said he had no plans to personally enforce the sex pledge. The "non-platonic" clause is "increasingly standard" in domestic partnership plans, Cavanaugh said. The clause is one of several methods used to legally ensure that an employer is only obligated to cover employees in a committed relationship, not longtime roommates.

So what's your answer then, Mr. Cavanaugh? Are you going to police it?

32 posted on 01/23/2006 8:07:54 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lazamataz

highly possible :~) hormone therapy works wonders.


33 posted on 01/23/2006 8:08:25 AM PST by peacebaby (thanks for reminding me that it's not about me)
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To: Millee

Does oral sex qualify? Can I get benefits for my sheep?


34 posted on 01/23/2006 8:12:19 AM PST by ArtyFO (I love to smoke cigars when I adjust artillery fire.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

BIngo!


35 posted on 01/23/2006 8:13:45 AM PST by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: All

Drug stores better stock up on lube...


36 posted on 01/23/2006 8:22:42 AM PST by Armedanddangerous (Master of Sinanju (Emeritus))
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To: massgopguy
What is the definition of sex?

Ask BJ Clintoon, he "did not have" a sex with that woman, he just effed her, and got away with it. And then there is, what is is, is ,is

37 posted on 01/23/2006 8:26:30 AM PST by Leo Carpathian (FReeeePeee!)
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To: Lazamataz

rereading your post...LOL.

3 or 4 or 5 times...not 345, silly!


38 posted on 01/23/2006 8:26:34 AM PST by peacebaby (thanks for reminding me that it's not about me)
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To: Millee

Gee, how nice of them to cut out 'abuse' by, for instance, faculty and staff who have a parent who is a farmer and want to get him or her benefits by declaring them and their parent to be domestic partners.

Sheesh!

They just ruined the best argument for recognizing domestic partnerships: that it's about household members sharing benefits, not about sex partner sharing benefits.


39 posted on 01/23/2006 8:27:19 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: peacebaby
Damn.

My mind had overloaded with the thought of it all.

40 posted on 01/23/2006 8:27:24 AM PST by Lazamataz (I have a Chinese family renting an apartment from me. They are lo mein tenants.)
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