The Obama administration said Friday
that insurers must offer identical health coverage to spouses in a
same-sex marriage as they offer to spouses in an opposite-sex
marriage.
“Today, we are clarifying that,
starting next year, if an insurance company offers coverage to
opposite-sex spouses, it cannot choose to deny that coverage to
same-sex spouses,” the government said in a post published on the
Department of Health and Human Services' health care blog.
“In other words, insurance companies
will not be permitted to discriminate against married same-sex
couples when offering coverage. This will further enhance access to
health care for all Americans including those with same-sex spouses.”
Katie Keith, director of research at
the Trimpa Group, which consults on LGBT issues, called the guidance
“a big deal.”
“If you identify as married, it's
hard to stomach that you can't get family coverage,” she told The
Washington Post.
Last month, an Ohio couple who married
in New York filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to force Ohio to
recognize their marriage so that they may enroll as a family under
the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
(Related: Couple
challenges Ohio's gay marriage ban.)