More Americans Marrying for the Insurance
“I love him a lot, and I want to marry him … I just don’t want to be forced to marry him early for insurance purposes.”
Brandy Brady of Lake Charles, Louisiana, as reported in the New York Times
More trips down the aisle are being prefaced with these kinds of statements as the cost of individual health insurance in the US continues to climb.
The August 12 New York Times reports, in its story “Health Benefits Inspire Rush to Marry, or Divorce,” that one study shows 7 percent of adults in the US have a family member who married for insurance benefits, and that a wedding officiant in Kentucky estimates that one in 10 couples he marries cites health insurance as the reason for their betrothal.
Equally troubling are the stories of two married couples shared in the article. The Parishes of Nobleville, Indiana, delayed finalizing a divorce so that the wife could stay on her husband’s health insurance for chemotherapy. The Moultons of Washington state nearly divorced, just so that ailing wife Michele could leave the policy her husband had purchased, to go into the state’s high-risk pool. The Moultons avoided divorce only when a family member stepped in to help with the roughly $50,000 in debt that accrued because of her illness.
Are you considering all your options for getting health insurance? A lot varies by state. Read the healthinsuranceinfo.net guide for consumers in the individual health plan market for your state (and the state of your fiance, if it’s different!).