Gay and unmarried couples are getting unfair treatment when it comes to employee health insurance benefits. That’s according to a survey carried out in America in 2006 which found that married couples are much more likely to be given a private health insurance policy through their workplace than those who are simply cohabiting. The research found that one in five in same sex relationships did not have employee private health cover, compared to only ten per cent of married couples.

Employee health insurance has been proved to be very beneficial for both the worker, with a better general health and access to good quality and efficient treatment, and for the employer, with fewer days lost to sickness each year. Homosexuals will be put at a big disadvantage if they are denied access to private healthcare, meaning they are more likely to become ill and lack medical treatment when they need it. Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy who carried out the research, told PinkNews, "When employers do not provide equal coverage for the important long-term, committed relationships of unmarried employees, those employees' families are vulnerable to receiving poor or no health care.”

Freedom Healthnet has provided health insurance policies with equal coverage for both homosexual individuals and couples, since the company was set up four years ago. Many gay people have felt discriminated against in the past and have been put off getting a quote for private medical insurance because of this, but such discrimination should no longer be the norm. Homosexual employees can also be covered at no extra cost in Freedom’s corporate health insurance policies meaning that there is no reason for them to be put at a disadvantage any longer.