Should Marriage Determine Your Health Insurance Policy?

It’s common for people who share a life together through marriage to also share a health insurance policy. Marriage brings two people, and everything they own, together; sometimes, “everything they own” includes their health insurance policies. While most married couples choose to use one health insurance policy to cover both because it seems more affordable, there are actually benefits to having two separate health insurance policies.

It’s true that using one health insurance policy for both people after marriage can sometimes save money; however, what happens if both spouses already have health insurance policies with which they are satisfied?

If this is the case, it’s time to sit down and list the pros and cons of both keeping separate health insurance policies, and deciding on one health insurance policy to stick with.

If you and your spouse both have health insurance policies, think about how pleased each of you is with your separate health insurance policies. If you’re both extremely satisfied with your own health insurance policies, it may not pay to eliminate one and keep the other. You may have a health insurance policy that allows you to see certain specialists your health requires you to see at lower prices while your spouse, who doesn’t need to see these specialists, has a plan that doesn’t cover these specialists.

On the other hand, your spouse may have a health insurance policy that offers benefits your current health insurance policy doesn’t offer, or vice versa. If your spouse’s health insurance policy is cheaper than your health insurance policy, and offers the benefits you want and need but don’t currently have, perhaps you should consider dropping your health insurance policy and joining your spouse’s health insurance policy.

Ultimately, as long as the coverage needed is offered, and the prices paid are affordable, whether you keep separate health insurance policies or decide to use only one after marriage is entirely up to you.