Continuing the national trend toward marriage equality, the Obama Administration announced that it will allow same-sex married couples to qualify for Medicare benefits just like opposite-sex married couples. Following last June’s landmark Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor, which held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is an unconstitutional deprivation of equal liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment, the Department of Health and Human Services explained that DOMA no longer bars Medicare from recognizing same-sex marriage. The Social Security Administration is now processing Medicare enrollments for same-sex spouses. An FAQ is available here.
