His employer provides health insurance through the New York State Health Insurance Program, which offers a plan known as the Empire Plan, under which he has been covered for almost a decade. He added his male partner, plaintiff Plamen Koev, as an additional insured at the same time he signed up. The application to add Koev disclosed that he was male. United acts as the policy and/or claims administrator for Empire, and defendants Jablonski and Whispell are employed by United.