Two Florida municipalities have voted to extend healthcare coverage to their workers’ same-sex spouses.
In the city of Lakeland, commissioners approved expanding health care coverage to spouses of city employees in same-sex marriages by a 5-2 vote Monday, reported the Lakeland Ledger.
The coverage applies to employees who lawfully married in one of the 19 states, or the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal. City officials have estimated about 10 employees are legally married to same-sex partners.
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In Highlands County, Fla., county commissioners on Tuesday moved to continue allowing same-sex spouses to be covered in the insurance program offered to county employees, reported the News-Sun.
Highlands County allowed the coverage to continue by taking no action, defeating a pair motions to change the county’s current plan, where same-sex spouses were already being covered.
Attempts by two commissioners were made to revoke the coverage by mirroring the state of Florida’s 2008 constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
