A Modest Proposal

It sounds like satire. But single mother Terri Carlson is, apparently, all too serious: she wants to marry as soon as possible, and she is advertising her availability on the internet.

And not just through traditional venues, like Match.com, but on YouTube, on her own website, and on national television. Terri is currently considering proposals from all interested single male suitors, with one condition: the man she marries must have health insurance. (Preferably with low co-pays and no lifetime limit on payable benefits.)

Terri Carlson has a preexisting condition, a rare, genetic autoimmune disease called C4 Complement Deficiency, that leaves her especially vulnerable to complications from common infections like colds and flu. Managing her disease requires regular doctors' visits and several medications. After over two decades as a stay-at-home mother to her four children, a divorce meant Carlson could no longer be covered under her husband's employer's group insurance policy.

Now that her children are grown, Carlson works outside the home, but according to this interview, her current employer, a company that specifically employs people with disabilities, cannot find affordable group insurance for its employees because private insurance companies consider them too high-risk. Searching for new coverage to replace the group health insurance she had once qualified for under her ex-husband's employer's policy, she soon discovered two unhappy consequences of her divorce: not only did her chronic health condition mean that no private insurance company would offer her an affordable individual health insurance policy to replace the group insurance coverage she had lost, but also, her lack of a work history due to her years as a stay-at-home parent made her ineligible for regular social security disability benefits (a common problem for stay-at-home moms who divorce). 

Lest we forget, even for a moment, that health care reform in the United States is a women's rights issue: Today, in 21st century America, a woman who spent 24 years contributing to society by working full-time to raise four children and currently works outside the home to support herself, all despite her disability, has, thanks to gender-biased Social Security laws and a broken health care system, decided that the only way she can survive — literally, the only way she feels she can access the medical care that keeps her alive — is to marry a man who can support her by providing her with adequate health insurance. 

I don't know what I would do if I were in Terri Carlson's position. As a die-hard feminist and a hopeless romantic, I have a hard time imagining myself ever advertising my eligibility for a health-insurance-based marriage of convenience on YouTube. But, as a sometime-stay-at-home mother myself, I can certainly sympathize with Terri Carlson's plight.

I got my first job at age 16. I have a college degree. I have several years of experience as a paid professional writer. Before my child was born, I often worked two or even three jobs at a time, sometimes working 60 or 70 hours a week. I'm an educated professional woman who has supported herself successfully in the past, and helps to support her family even now with part-time work.

But a without my husband, and his employer insurance policy that accepts people with pre-existing conditions, I can almost guarantee that would not be able to afford private health insurance for myself and my child if I needed it tomorrow.

Would you?

Comments

[Cynematic]

Bull's eye, Jaelithe.

Count this as another wacky economic idea of mine that I'll no doubt write up hurriedly in between sending my kid off to school in the morning and then driving for 40+ minutes to get to work:

I'd like to do a cap & trade idea, but for women's unpaid caretaking labor. Does that make sense?

If we can quantify and make a market out of downward pressure on carbon output and then trade this as a commodity, thus translating energy efficiency into something marketable, why can't we do the same for the "invisible" work women do? We'd in essence be giving women's unpaid caretaking labor a market value so it'd register and be trackable/tradeable in our traditional economy.

Yeah yeah, I know. Only half-baked, needs to go back into the oven.

Give me a while and I'll figure out a way to conceptualize it.

[Daisy]

Sad and scary. If I lose my job or have to leave it due to disability, my family will have a terrible time finding insurance. Between my asthma, my husband's high blood pressure, and my son's blindness, who would take us? No one.
Health care reform is so, so necessary.

[Scarlett]

I don’t understand your statement of gender-biased Social Security laws. The laws are gender-neutral. I am a divorced woman and never worked outside the home and I do get Social Security checks every month through my former husband who is now dead. I get over $20,000 a year.

Why isn’t Teri eligible for social security disability benefits from her former husband’s contributions?

[jaelithe]

Scarlett, that is a good question. The rules for Social Security Disability are different from the rules for regular Social Security. I linked to the Social Security website in the post so that curious readers like yourself could check it out.

Basically, Terri is too young to access her husband's benefits. She would have to be 50 or older (for people without disabilities, the rule is 62 or older).

[Scarlett]

You know, I was thinking of an unwed mother I know who has a disabled son who receives ss disability,but that is a mother/son situation. And, a married woman I know who did work outside the home and is now disabled does get ss disability, but she was over 50. It seems like it is the divorced homemaker under 50 who get nothing. Thanks for the response and making things clearer for me.

Something has to be done for those with pre-existing medical problems who can't get health insurance. My divorced daughter couldn't get health insurance because she went to a psychiatrist twice, years before she applied. She finally did get a catastropic policy with a $5000 deductible and is satisfied with that. She puts money into an account every month in case she needs it for that first $5000. She is healthy, thankfully.

[margalit]

I think this is based upon where a single woman lives. I've always provided health insurance for myself and my children, as a self-employed worker, as an employed worker, and now as a disabled person. But I live in a state that requires health insurance for all it's citizens by law, and provides enough low income coverage for children as well as adults. I get medicare, and on top of that I have a PPOS and Part D private coverage that I pay for. My children have Mass Health, which is medicaid based, but I pay a monthly premium for that. Even on disability my family's insurance costs on a monthly basis are over $300/month, which is costly for me but affordable for most families. Of course, we also get the best health coverage money can buy that is fully comprehensive and pays more than most private ins carriers.