The University of Alabama at Huntsville and the University of Alabama at Birmingham have changed their employee insurance policies, because some officials say the new policy will enable them to attract higher quality faculty to their staff.
The new insurance policy extends coverage to an adult dependent that shares a primary residence with the covered UAH employee, has lived with the employee for at least 12 consecutive months and is not married, a relative or under 19.
"We want to compete for the best minds in the country," said Ray Garner, director of public affairs at UAH. "What we wanted to do is be able to lower barriers to bring them to our area."
The modified policy provides coverage to common law marriages and couples who are living together, but are not married. Since gender is not specified in the policy, this extends coverage to homosexual couples.
UAH conducts its insurance enrollment period during November.
The university employees can modify the way their insurance provided through the university.
However, as of Tuesday night, Garner said no one had applied under the new policy.
The policy of Auburn University is modeled after the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan that the state follows that requires a couple to be married for the employee's partner to be covered.
The University follows that pattern because it is the largest public health plan in the state, said Ronald Herring, executive director for the payroll and employee benefits office.
Herring said he wasn't sure if the University would look into changing the policy if that meant the University could recruit more faculty.
Jennifer Barnes, secretary for the Auburn Gay Straight Alliance, said she thinks this is a sign UAH and UAB are moving forward toward giving rights to homosexuals that are equal to those given to heterosexuals.
"The reasons don't really matter if they're achieving the same thing," Barnes said. "I think even if there was another motive for it, the results are going to be kind of the same."
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