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Domestic partners gain health benefits Local governments quietly usher in benefits to comply with court decision By JIM DAVIS With little fanfare, Medford and other Southern Oregon governments have extended health benefits for domestic partners of their employees to comply with a recent court ruling. The city of Medford allows partners in gay and heterosexual relationships to take advantage of health benefits, said City Attorney Ron Doyle. "It made sense that the term `domestic partners' shouldn't be restrictive," Doyle said. The city began offering the extended coverage on April 1. Five people have signed up, said Linda Mustain, Medford's personnel director. The city is following a decision made last December by the Oregon Court of Appeals. Three lesbian employees at Oregon Health Sciences University argued that their domestic partners should be entitled to benefits. A three-judge panel ruled that the "denial of insurance benefits to unmarried partners of its homosexual employees" violated the equal protection provisions of the Oregon Constitution. The ruling does not affect private businesses. It became an issue in Grants Pass last week when the City Council voted 2-1 to extend the benefits. Three council members abstained from voting. The Grants Pass council, however, extended benefits only to the partners of same-sex couples, not unmarried partners in heterosexual relationships, said Joanne Stumpf, the city's administrative services director. In the court ruling, the judges found that gays and lesbians were not being offered equal benefits because state law does not permit them to marry, while heterosexual couples can obtain benefits by getting married. Medford City Manager Michael Dyal made an administrative decision earlier this year to extend the health benefits to all domestic partners, Doyle said. As a result, the city's health insurance premiums will rise by about 1 percent, Mustain said. It will cost the city about $1,100 a month to make the extended coverage available for 275 positions. The rest of the city's 389 employees are covered by insurance through the Teamsters Union. For Jackson County, three health plans cover the governments 875 employees, said Burke Raymond, county administrator. He said all the plans now extend coverage for same-sex partners -- with one plan offering coverage for same-sex and heterosexual relationships. In Ashland, the city belongs to a statewide city/county insurance services group that began offering benefits only to same-sex couples on Jan. 28, said Tina Gray, an Ashland personnel assistant. Central Point City Administrator Jim Bennett said his city hasn't extended coverage to domestic partners. "We haven't had it come up," Bennett said. "We'll deal with it when and if the occasion rises." The state government began offering benefits to gay partners of its 45,000 employees last June -- before the court ruling. The state Legislature is considering two bills -- House Joint Resolutions 4 and 29 -- that would put a constitutional amendment before voters to define marriage as the union of a man and woman, and deny benefits to unmarried couples. The Senate passed a similar bill in 1997, but it died in the House. The proposals are in the House Judiciary-Civil Law Committee and they are sponsored by Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem. Reps. Jason Atkinson of Jacksonville and Carl Wilson of Grants Pass, both Republicans, are co-sponsors of one of the proposals. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA