FedEx is denying insurance benefits to civil-unioned spouses of their New Jersey employees.
Smaller companies that buy private health insurance plans for their employees are compelled to offer them to same-sex couples under the state’s civil union laws. But most legal experts agree that federal regulations give companies with self-funded insurance plans — a group covering 55 percent of the country 105 million working-age employees — the power to ignore state laws regarding corporate benefits.
Boycott?
It’s also another clarion call for the need for a single-payer healthcare system. I’m sure the larger factor in FedEx’s decision is not animus toward gay relationships, but the simple fact that FedEx is a profit-making enterprise and that healthcare costs are an enormous burden for companies to bear. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending FedEx, but when your focus is on making money, then in the corporate world you do whatever you can do to reduce costs, and if the federal government does not require that they extend this coverage, then they’re not going to do it, simply to save money. “Family plans” and “dependent coverage” should go the way of the Dodo. If everyone had insurance, then…everyone would have insurance, regardless of their marital or employment status.
Excellent point!