Are domestic partners eligible for COBRA coverage?
It is important to understand that COBRA is a federal law. ERISA, the federal law that regulates COBRA continuation coverage in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Code, permits only “qualified beneficiaries” to receive COBRA benefits. Under IRS 1999 final regulations, a qualified beneficiary is defined only as a covered employee, the spouse of a covered employee, or the dependent child of a covered employee. Due to the highly publicized same-sex marriages that have taken place recently in San Francisco and other cities, arguments may be made that spouses of the same gender as the covered employee should be considered qualified beneficiaries for COBRA purposes because a particular local law considers them to be legal spouses. But such assertions will most certainly fail because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was passed in 1996. This law defines “marriage” as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and defines “spouse” as a person of the
