USAA Covers Mass. Same-Sex Spouses Earlier Denied

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says United Services Automobile Association will offer insurance coverage to people who had previously been denied after their same-sex Massachusetts marriages to eligible policy-holders ended.

The agreement announced on Jan. 3 also calls for USAA to pay the state $50,000.

USAA offers auto and property insurance to current and former U.S. military members, their children and spouses, including spouses who don’t remarry after death or divorce. Since 2012 it has recognized all legal marriages, civil unions and registered domestic partnerships.

Same-sex marriages became legal in Massachusetts in 2004, when USAA still based spousal eligibility on the federal Defense of Marriage Act recognizing only heterosexual marriages. The U.S. Supreme Court partly overturned that law last year.

USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth said the Massachusetts settlement “simply documents that USAA will continue its current practice.”