This bill would permit the Public Employee Retirement System to make domestic partner health benefits available to California state and local government employees and retirees. There are at least three reasons why it is important to support A.B. 107. Hundreds of public and private employers now offer domestic partner benefits to their employees in order to attract the most qualified employees.
Every day there are announcements of additional employers that are offering the benefits.
California state and local governments need to offer them too in order to attract the best employees. The cost of offering domestic partner benefits will be minimal. As you may have heard, the cost of providing domestic partner benefits to employees of the University of California has been much less than expected. Also actuarial data show that the cost of providing care for domestic partners is no higher than the cost of providing care for other family members. Thus premiums will be no higher than for these other family members.