Getting Married for Health Insurance

[Celebration]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health29apr29,1,7911757.story

Some people marry for love, some for companionship, and others for status or money. Now comes another reason to get hitched: health insurance.

In a poll released today, 7% of Americans said they or someone in their household decided to marry in the last year so they could get healthcare benefits via their spouse.

"It's a small number but a powerful result, because it shows how paying for healthcare is reflected not only in family budgets but in life decisions," said Drew E. Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which commissioned the survey as part of its regular polling on healthcare.

On a broader scale, the survey found that healthcare costs outranked housing costs, rising food prices and credit card bills as a source of concern. Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said they had experienced serious problems because of the cost of healthcare, compared with 29% who had problems getting a good job or a raise. Gasoline prices were the top economic worry, with 44% saying they had serious problems keeping up with increases at the pump.

[lisa58]

1. I know a couple that did that two years ago...

...she had insurance, he didn't, he was diagnosed with diabetes - they got married.

[deadmessengers]

2. Health insurance was our biggest motivator for marrying

My (now) wife and I had been living together but unmarried for twelve years. Marriage was simply not important to us - we really didn't have any religious connotations to it, and could really care less about our respective families' exhortations that we should marry. We also didn't like the idea of getting married while so many other committed couples were prohibited from doing so. However, my wife did not have health insurance, and buying it on the open market was prohibitively expensive. Two years ago, though, after the smaller company I worked for for years was acquired by a much larger company, we ended up with the opportunity to add her to my health insurance policy with no strings attached, as long as we qualified, which meant getting married.

We ran off to the courthouse, got married by a JP, and I added her to my health policy the next Monday, saving us about $1200/mo. Our relationship hasn't really changed, other than the fact that we're not losing sleep worrying that she'll get sick and everything we've worked for would be wiped out. Hell, we haven't even told our families or friends about it - to us, it's just a piece of paper that enables her health insurance policy.

[nichomachus]

3. I did

Well, not exactly. I was facing the loss of Cobra and the only way to get health insurance for less than $16,000 a year was to become a registered domestic partner with my de-facto partner of 20 years. So, I did. It's not like I married someone I didn't love.

Domestic partnership is not "almost marriage" as some people claim. There are numerous financial and legal drawbacks it, and I don't recommend anyone do it without first checking with a lawyer or financial planner who is knowledgeable about same-sex legal issues. In fact, now that I no longer need his health-care insurance, we are considering dissolving the partnership, although we plan to stay together. The skimpy handful of "benefits" we get can be taken care of with a few legal documents. If we got the 1,500 tax and legal benefits that "married" people get, and they were recognized nationwide, then it would be worth staying as DPs.

[Delphinus]

4. I'd certainly think about it,

and probably do it, if there was someone I was involved with. Hmm ... maybe a new dating service for those with & without insurance! There's an idea!