Health insurance for LGBTs is getting more equitable in Miami Beach.
The Miami Beach City Commission and Mayor Matti Bower have unanimously approved a new tax equity policy that ensures city employees with domestic partners will be freed from the extra taxes they’d been paying on their partners’ health insurance. These taxes are thousands more than straight married employees pay.
According to Equality Florida, the plan passed in Miami Beach June 5 is the strongest and most comprehensive of its kind in the U.S., and it’s been in the works for just over a year.
“EQFL staff assisted the Miami Beach LGBT Business Enhancement Committee in bringing the issue forward in the spring of 2012,” said Stratton Pollitzer, Equality Florida Deputy Director, in a media release. “We have provided ongoing technical support, background research, and economic studies to city staff drafting the policy. And we have participated in every public hearing and workshop on the policy.”
Florida leads the nation on tax equity policies and has passed six of these policies already this year – more than have ever been passed in the rest of the country combined, according to EQFL.
