BCBSNC to Offer Family Coverage for Same-Sex Couples and All Domestic Partners in ACA plans

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), has issued the following statement about family coverage for married same-sex couples and domestic partners. “In order to ensure that our technology was ready for the Affordable Care Act, our company chose to postpone a number of product updates until 2015. One of these was to begin making family coverage available to same-sex married couples and domestic partners (same-sex or opposite-sex) in our ACA-approved plans.We should have more thoughtfully considered this decision, with full appreciation of the impact it would have on same-sex married couples and domestic partners. We’re sorry we failed to do so. Our employees have worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Insurance over the past week to update our plans in order to make family coverage available sooner. Starting Monday, same-sex married couples and anyone in a domestic partnership may purchase new family coverage on or off the Exchange for an effective date of March 1.  Domestic partners and same-sex married couples who enrolled separately on ACA plans can convert them into family plans retroactive to their original effective date.