Michigan Law, No Health Care for Domestic Partners

Government employers in Michigan will be barred from providing health care benefits to the domestic partners of public employees, under legislation signed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Whether the prohibition will apply to employees of the state public universities remained unclear, however.

The measure applies to state, municipal and school employees, and to both same-sex and straight couples. But it was primarily aimed at ending the practice of providing benefits to same-sex couples adopted by some government agencies and most of the state’s public universities after the adoption of the one-man, one-woman marriage amendment in 2004.

Snyder had been under pressure from gay rights activists and others to veto the bill.

But confusion over the extent of its application continues.

State Senate and House supporters of the legislation disagreed about whether it covered employees at Michigan’s public universities, the largest provider of domestic partner benefits in the state.

Snyder earlier said he believed the autonomy granted universities under the state constitution precluded the Legislature from enacting regulations about the provision of benefits to university employees, and that he would not sign it if he believed it infringed on those rights.