Marrying for Health Insurance
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November 19, 2008
| By:
Robert
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Comments (
4
)Couples are increasingly headed to the altar for a reason other than love: health insurance.
In a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 7% of adults said someone in their household had married in the past 12 months to gain access to healthcare benefits. Most couples said they expected to get married sooner or later, but a partner's necessity for healthcare benefits was the catalyst for the rush to the altar.
I can see it now: "She's got a great personality, an excellent sense of humor and, most importantly, fabulous health insurance."
Or: "I think I'm falling in love with you--what kind of health insurance do you have?"
With health insurance out of the grasp of nearly 46 million Americans, it's no surprise that the uninsured are scrambling to gain access to health insurance. But marriage is taking things too far. Marrying for money has always been popular, buy marrying for access to healthcare benefits? Aren't our standards getting a bit low--is the economy really that bad?
Call me old-fashioned, but I still subscribe to the belief that marriage is supposed to be about love. Marrying for millions of dollars is understandable, but taking a plunge into holy matrimony in exchange for a free doctor's visit is absurd.
Or is it?
On one hand, I couldn't begin to imagine marrying a person for their health insurance. On the other, if I were in constant pain and in desperate need of a life-saving kidney transplant, I'd probably see the situation a bit differently. After all, a good divorce lawyer is always just a phone call away.
These poor souls may be stuck in loveless marriages, but hey, at least they're healthy.
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Interesting article. I need to read it again in order to digest all the information correctly!
At least they're not marrying for life insurance benefits- then we should be concerned! It is a strange statistic but with the rising costs of medical benefits these days I don't entirely doubt it.
C. Van Brunt
Insurance benefits seem like a pretty weird reason to get married...very interesting article.
I think it is quite funny to ask :
"I think I'm falling in love with you--what kind of health insurance do you have?"
Maybe plan later after marriage is more polite
http://insurancelog.blogspot.com/