More companies, even in Utah, cover domestic partners

[kweerwolf]

They have been labeled a threat to families, praised as workers' rights and, increasingly, hailed as good business.
Domestic partner benefits, though legally contentious in the public sector, are gaining ground in corporate circles. Utah employers, both national and home-grown, are extending health coverage and other employment perks to unmarried couples in larger numbers than ever before.
For example 20 percent of eligible employers who are enrolled with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, the state's second-largest insurer, offer such benefits. Five years ago it was zero, says Kevin Bischoff, a vice president with the company. Currently, clients with 100 or more insured workers are eligible to offer the benefits but that could change if Regence receives requests from smaller employers, Bischoff says.
Regence extended domestic partner benefits to its own employees in 2001. Unmarried employees receive the same health benefits for their partners as their married counterparts.

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3164746