BILL NUMBER:  AB 1059
  VETOED	DATE: 09/29/1998




To the Members of the California Assembly:

I am returning Assembly Bill No. 1059 without my signature.

This bill would require health care service plans and disability
insurers that provide health insurance benefits to employers to offer
coverage for domestic partners of employees.

Domestic partner health benefit coverage is an issue that is more
appropriately left to negotiations between employers and employees.
This coverage is available for both large and small employers who
wish to provide the benefit, as evidenced by the many employers who
choose to do so.

This bill would also increase the cost of health insurance.  No
definition for "domestic partner" is provided.  Accordingly, almost
any person living with a covered employee would be eligible for
benefits.  Coverage would not only be extended to the relationships
contemplated by the author, but also to roommates and heterosexual
couples who live together but do not marry.  This will increase the
cost of insurance because premium rates for dependent coverage are
based on stable family relationsh ips.  The lack of a definition for
"domestic partner" lends itself to instability, fraud and adverse
selection.

Most importantly, this bill is clearly only the beginning of the
domestic partnership debate.  Enactment of this bill would likely
result in more extravagant domestic partner legislation that uses
these insurance coverage provisions as a precedent for "domestic
partner" rights which are currently allowed for only traditional
family members.

Cordially,





                                                       PETE WILSON