‘Domestic Partners’ Seldom Get Benefits

Want to get medical coverage for your lover? Lots of luck.

While more and more people are living together, the number of employers who offer benefits to “domestic partners” is pitifully small, regardless of whether they are unmarried boyfriend and girlfriend or roommates of the same sex.

A study by Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire, Ill., benefits consultant, found that fewer than 150 U.S. employers offer benefits to workers’ domestic partners.

Most employers cite cost concerns in rejecting partner benefits, the study found. But it also found it’s actually no more expensive to cover unmarried partners than spouses.

Employers who offer domestic partner benefits said that only 3 percent of their employees used the coverage, as many partners had their own health plans.

Many companies that did not offer domestic partner coverage cited costs of caring for AIDS patients.

But there were few such cases, Hewitt found, and the cost of adding same-sex partners to health plans was offset by savings from maternity costs.

Thieves prefer sports cars

Looking at new cars? Maybe you should consider the special risks that go with certain choices. Most people know that sport and luxury cars are more prone to wrecks or theft and, thus, cost more to insure. But it’s still startling to see the actual figures, compiled by the Highway Loss Data Institute.

Sports cars are three times more likely to be stolen than the average car, while luxury and utility vehicles are about 2.5 times more prone to theft. And, just as you might have thought, that boring old station wagon or passenger van is stolen only about half as often as the average car.

States with the highest theft rates: California, Florida and Arizona. With the lowest: South Dakota, Vermont and Maine.