More Universities Cut Health-Care Costs and Offer Partner Benefits

The number of colleges offering health-care benefits to employees’ domestic partners has gone up for the third consecutive year, while more institutions are asking employees to pay a share of their insurance costs or turning to other cost-saving options, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

In the association’s latest annual survey of benefits at American colleges and universities, which covers the 2008 fiscal year, 42 percent of responding institutions said they offered benefits to same-sex partners and 34 percent offered benefits to partners of the opposite sex. Those figures were up from 40 percent for same-sex partners and 31 percent for opposite-sex partners the year before, and 38 percent and 28 percent in 2006.

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