On March 11, 2011, representative Anthony Weiner of New York and Barbara Boxer of California introduced new legislation to the House and the Senate, respectively, to ensure that the LGBTQ community would be eligible for COBRA insurance in a bill called the Equal Access to COBRA Act.  In sharing the act, Barbara Boxer who submitted a similar bill to the Senate in 2010, that, said “All of our families deserve equal access to health insurance…This bill would help ensure that domestic partners and their families will be able to keep their health coverage if their partner loses their job.”  It marks a major win for LGBTQ communities so that they also in this hard economic time have access to the health insurance benefits provided under the COBRA insurance legislation passed in 1985.

Currently, most same sex partnerships are denied COBRA insurance benefits for spouses, unless they live in a state they allows same sex civil unions and marriages.  The Human Rights Campaign recently also came out in support of this legislation, saying, “In these troubled economic times, social safety-net benefits like COBRA continuation coverage are even more important to American families. LGBTQ people should have the equal ability to maintain those critical benefits for their families during difficult times.”