Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is showing his moderate colors.
The governor recently signed the California Insurance Equality Act, which requires insurance carriers to provide employers in the state the same coverage to registered domestic partners as they do to spouses.
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, goes beyond the workplace and also covers automobile and other insurance policies.
Employers that offer coverage for a worker’s spouse will have to offer a plan that provides equal coverage for registered domestic partners under the law.
That stands to involve work for human resources managers and benefits administrators.
And businesses could face added insurance costs if a lot of workers take them up on policies for domestic partners.
But the pro-business Republican governor signed Assembly Bill 2208 with hardly a peep from businesses. The legislation didn’t make the California Chamber of Commerce’s “job killers” list.
It turns out businesses could benefit from a side effect of the legislation. The law, aimed at insurers, helps companies by clarifying earlier legislation that left them open to discrimination lawsuits, said Steve Hansen, legislative advocate for San Francisco-based Equality California, a group that lobbies on behalf of gays and lesbians.
Under legislation that took effect in 2000, some domestic partners were paying higher premiums than spouses, Hansen said. In other cases, they were denied coverage, he said.
That made employers vulnerable to lawsuits, according to Hansen. The new law calls for insurers to provide insurance to domestic partners that’s identical to that offered to spouses.
Several companies called for this story weren’t aware of the new law.
Insurance Commissioner John Gara-mendi and Equality California sponsored the bill. Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, wrote it.
Insurers say complying will be relatively easy.
“We don’t expect there to be major costs,” said Bill Sirola, a spokesman for Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Insurance Cos., which has operations in Irvine.
The insurer is reviewing its processes and changing some of its underwriting procedures, he said. But he’s not sure what the demand will be.
There are about 25,000 registered domestic partners in California, according to Equality California. Those are couples that share a residence and have filed a declaration of domestic partnership with the California secretary of state.
Many companies already offer health insurance for domestic partners.
Nearly half of Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partner benefits, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.
They include Southern California Edison Co., IBM Corp., Nike Inc. and Ford Motor Co.
Orange County companies that offer domestic partner benefits include big names, such as Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. and smaller ones including Anaheim-based 2D Imaging Inc., Irvine-based Able Software Inc. and Santa Ana-based Gallade Chemical Inc.
Sacramento-based Capitol Resource Institute, which seeks to keep marriage as between a man and a woman, said it opposed the bill because it would force businesses to pay for same-sex relationships even if they’re opposed to homosexuality.
The group also said it would increase insurance costs for employers.
The Christian organization Concerned Women for America and the Campaign for California Families, which calls Sch-warzenegger a “Democrat in Republican’s clothes,” also opposed the bill.
Equality California’s Hansen said that the governor’s signing of the bill shows that he’s fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Schwarzenegger has signed three bills sponsored by Equality California.
“We’re very excited and proud of him for that support,” Hansen said.
