For the first time in years, the Council of Graduate Students has asked the Ohio State Senate, as a whole, to review the issue of including domestic partners in the OSU student health insurance plan.

OSU’s insurance account manager, Koster Insurance Agency, is responsible for ensuring that the plan is understood by OSU. Koster’s underwriter, Reliance National, which designs the cost of the plan, also sets the criteria for classifying someone as a domestic partner. According to them, a “Declaration of Domestic Partnership” must be filed by the partner of the insured student stating that:

• The partner must be residing with the insured student for at least 12 months, and intends to do so indefinitely;

• The partner is considered the “sole Domestic Partner”;

• The insured student and partner are at least 18 years of age;

• The insured student and partner are jointly responsible for each other’s welfare and financial obligations;

• The insured student and partner are not married or related by blood;

• The underwriter recognizes both hetero- and homosexual relationships.

Every year, for the past seven years, a proposal has been developed by the Student Health Insurance Committee. The proposal is sent to the Committee of Student Affairs who is asked if the proposal concurs with the current student health insurance plan. If so, CSA passes a resolution recommending coverage for domestic partners. The resolution is passed on to the sub-committee for the Board of Trustees.

This step is where the request for domestic partner coverage has died in the past. The sub-committee chooses to remove the request from the proposal at this stage, and then passes on the proposal to the Board of Trustees that then votes on it.

The domestic partner coverage is difficult to obtain primarily because the state of Ohio does not recognize domestic partner relationships.

Because the majority of Ohio’s General Assembly is Republican and conservative, it does not want to take that step in recognizing that relationship, said Susan Wittstock, a legislative aid.

“It has been an issue around the state, and (the legislature) is trying to move away from it,” Wittstock said.

Past efforts of trying to pass bills prohibiting same sex marriages are proof of this.

“We definitely support the addition of domestic partners in both the student and the faculty and staff health insurance plans. In a university setting where diversity is emphasized, the additional benefits would help retain and recruit quality students,” said Chad McCoury, coordinator of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services.

However, the student health insurance proposal emphasizes the reasons why OSU should try to adopt this policy, stating that discrimination against any individual for reasons including sexual orientation is specifically prohibited and accordingly all other university activities are extended to all persons, promoting equal opportunity.

Also, according to the 2000 OSU Poll data, 69.3 percent of students support offering domestic partner insurance coverage, 18.3 percent oppose this benefit and 12.4 percent were undecided.

The SHI committee also believes the additional benefits will help attract and retain the best students, and more than 2,933 employers and universities offer the benefits, including UCLA, Iowa State University, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Vanderbilt and Yale. Also, Columbus divisions of Nationwide Insurance, the Limited and Donato’s recognize the partnerships.

If the benefits were added to current coverage it is stressed that no university dollars would be used to fund the plan, and reminded that the plan is fully funded through student premiums. If the plan was accepted, the underwriter has agreed to give students in domestic partner relationships the same benefits as married students, with no added cost to the current premiums.

If OSU were to implement this recognition, because of the fairly conservative climate within state legislation, it could result in some actions, said Colleen O’Brien, director of State Relations.

“The Trustees, who must approve such a benefit, are concerned, however, that if these benefits are approved there will be negative repercussions from the General Assembly in our budgetary allocations,” said OSU President William “Brit” Kirwan, who strongly supports the benefits for domestic partners with OSU healthcare insurance.