Scene: The local meet market on a Friday night.
Slob: “Hey, baby. Wanna go back to my place?”
Sexy honey (horrified): “Yuch!”
Slob (drooling down her cleavage): “I can satisfy you in ways you never imagined.”
Sexy honey: “Go away, creep!”
Slob (reaches into his pants to pull it out): “Bet you’ve never seen one like this.”
Sexy honey (looks around for a bouncer)
Slob (pulls out health insurance card): “Check it out.”
Sexy honey (reads, smiles, grabs his arm, pulls him toward exit): “Let’s stop at the all night wedding chapel first, sweetie.”
Getting married for health insurance
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.
[…]
What surprised researchers was that such costs had become a factor in marriage decisions. “We should have asked about divorce,” said Altman, joking.Those who cited health insurance as a factor in deciding to marry tended to have modest incomes. About 6 in 10 were in households making less than $50,000 a year, said Mollyann Brodie, who directs Kaiser’s opinion research. They also were younger, with 4 in 10 between 18 and 34.
What a great pickup line. LOL
Hey, baby, I got Blue Cross Blue Shield. Hubba hubba.
Eric,
I am far from being a redneck as anyone can get, and I’m not poor or from the boonies. Neither do I think being poor is a crime or an indication of ignorance.
Characterizing people as ignorant or rednecks tells me that the name caller is someone who has limited experience of personal difficulty, and no empathy.
I also think calling people names is rude, and considering that it happens with the safety of a blog, it doesn’t take much courage.
I notice that you think this kind of story is prompted by upcoming elections. So what? That doesn’t mean they are lies. If we don’t care about our fellow citizens, our country is in deeper trouble than you think.
I hope you never need help; but you’ll change your tune if you do.
That being said, on to the subject.
After having a committed relationship with a woman for 11 years, I had to move to another state. We had to stay together; but she had a serious, chronic disease (MS), which made her uninsurable by private health insurance. If she moved, she’d lose her state sponsored insurance. If we didn’t move, I couldn’t take the new job.
Solution – we marry, and she’s covered by my insurance. What happens if we have to get divorced, or I die?
Stop reading headlines and look deeper. We do not have a health care system in this country. We have “the market”.
Who benefits?
We’ve already established what you are, Babe. Right now, we’re just negotiating the health insurance plan.
>>We do not have a health care system in
>>this country. We have “the market”.
Amen to that, brother. I’d go even further, and say we don’t have “the market”, we have a “multiplayer monopoly”. If you don’t like one shitty, money-grubbing, golden-parachute-paying, $130,000,000.00-CEO company, you can always go to another one. But they’re still going to be shitty, money-grubbing, golden-parachute-paying, and have $130,000,000.00 CEOs. And if you have some pre-existing condition like MS or cancer or diabetes, you’re just fucked. Not enough money in it for them to insure you. You might actually need health care.
This “article” was about people needing/wanting health insurance.
Please do not conflate health insurance with “healthcare.” The healthcare is there in spades, but not if you’ve been left out by the private health insurance industry.
I nearly did this myself a few years ago. The rub was for my girl’s plan I wouldn’t be subsidized but instead would be allowed to buy into it at the group rate. But we got close to tying the knot for insurance.
Well heck, in that case.
Lonely Army Master Sergeant with full coverage health benefits looking for Katherine Bell look alike for long term relationship and alot of naughty JAG role-playing.
I guess canadians must be very popular? (at least in the northern border states)
Actually this is not as bad as depicted in the blog post. I and my beloved had planned to get married in Hawaii on April 16th but I found out back in November that she had lost her medical insurance when she changed jobs. I found that I couldn’t put her on my medical insurance unless we were married or a gay couple. So we did a quickie civil union so I could put her on my insurance and then we had the real wedding in April. Not exactly the sleazy scenario that was depicted in the blog post. I’m betting this is not an uncommon case.