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terri-carlsonWould you marry for health care?

This woman's willing to. Last week, we introduced you to Terri Carlson, a woman with a lifelong, genetic immune disease and a desperate need for health insurance. Even though she has a work-from-home job, it doesn't provide the health-care coverage she so urgently needs. Now, she's offering to walk down the aisle with a man who can provide her with a policy first, love second.

We wanted to know: Is she a savvy victim, a poster woman for the uninsured masses? And in the same situation, would you marry for health insurance?

Sure, it may seem like cheating the system. Several readers even asked -- is this fraud? Gina puts it bluntly: "No this isn't fraud, it's survival."

And even if it were, David suggests, "Ask yourself that if you were ever in those shoes and I don't mean just trying the shoes on, but walking in them. Would you really be worried about it being fraud? I think you would be more worried about receiving the care you needed right then."

Then again, people marry for reasons other than love all the time. How is this any different? Ravyn says, "It's illegal to marry someone just to become a citizen. But there are no laws saying you can't marry just to get health insurance. She may be doing this on a grand scale, but I am friends or acquaintances with at least three couples who have done the same thing in the past."


While most were sympathetic to her plight, readers warned her of the consequences of diving too quickly into holy matrimony simply for health care. J Parker says, "There is no guarantee that the someone with insurance you marry will have insurance a year from now. There are no guarantees for any of us with or without insurance. So what will you do if you marry someone with insurance and later that person loses their insurance?"

Tammy adds, "Most insurance companies will consider her condition 'pre-existing' and deny her coverage ... She should be very careful. You never know what you are truly getting in a man you don't even know."

Most of all, readers added, maybe Terri's situation illustrates a problem that is happening on a grand scale.

Before individual cases like this will ever start getting fixed, there needs to be change in the system. SikNTired says, "I see how it is first hand day in day out. I deal with legit cases and those who know the system so well it gets them a Lexus in the parking lot and a flat screen the size of their wall (yes, fixed rent, food stamps and charity health care), while hardworking people work 40-hour weeks to get what they can."

Celeste, whose price of health care will triple in a couple of months, worries for her own future and warns that any of us could end up in Terri's predicament: "This could happen to anyone. It can happen to you. Just because you have insurance today, doesn't mean you will have it tomorrow. 14,000 people a day are losing their health insurance and even people who do have it are driven into bankruptcy and homelessness because the insurance they pay blood money for won't adequately cover a catastrophic illness."

Tell us! What would you do if you were in Terri's shoes?