You're about to tie the knot.
Congratulations to you and your intended, and may you have many happy years together.
There are a number of considerations prior to the big day, and one of the more important ones is what to do about health care.
Especially now that the American system of providing health care is on life support, it's critical that we all get it right.
Those about to marry have a unique opportunity to choose the correct option for themselves and their spouse to be, and, with any luck, and the support of legislators across the aisle, a so-called public option will be one of their choices.
By the way, among the various federal HIPAA regulations is the requirement for insurance companies to allow access to a spouse's insurance policy.
If you're wondering about being able to join their policy, there's your answer.
The only catch? You may have to submit the request in writing, and do it within a certain time period of your marriage, usually 30 days.
If you try to enroll after the time period expires, you may have to wait for an open enrollment period.
First some simple business realities of getting married when it comes to health care.
If you both have an employer provided plan, should you both keep them? Should you instead drop one? Should you drop both of them, opting instead for a family plan? There are a number of questions not easily answered without benefit of a crystal ball, but here are some things to consider.
Let's say one of you is self-employed, or own a small business.
You might decide to buy an individual health insurance plan through an agent, a company, or a broker.
You can even buy a plan online.
As you might imagine there are a number of them out there.
If you don't currently have employer provided coverage, of course, you could exercise the same options.
In this case the easiest thing may well be to sign onto your new spouse's policy.
There may be a waiting period for coverage.
Check the fine print.
It may even make sense that both of you keep your current plan, depending on provisions, co-pays, deductibles etc.
Not to be Scrooge-like, but do you really mean to stay together? There are such things as pre-nups; perhaps keeping a health plan may be wise until, well...
Love is blind, after all; make sure you have vision coverage.
One thing to consider, especially if you're planning to start a family right away, or if you're becoming a blended family, is buying a family insurance plan.
If it will be just the two of you, but you plan a child right away, family plans have the costs of prenatal care, pregnancy and delivery built in.
They generally also provide adequate coverage for kid stuff like immunizations, and well child doctor visits.
But what about the public option? Simply put, and the plan is still being fleshed out at this writing, a public option may well be the best kind of coverage for newlyweds.
Why? Given that most newly married people are young, have no dependents, and are just starting out, they share something else: they're watching every penny, unable to afford expensive fee for service, or other elite type insurance coverage.
Rather than go without coverage, which many young people do only to end up in an emergency room for treatment, they need a low-cost, high-value option.
Particularly since most young newly married people tend to be healthy anyway, their biggest economic exposure is a catastrophic event, trauma, sudden onset illness or work-related injury.
Any of these items would be devastating to an uninsured person, and could well bankrupt a newly married couple, setting their lives back many years.
A public option for health insurance makes sense for everyone, but especially for the newly married.
If you're planning your nuptials, you may want to pester your legislators to let them know that a public option health care plan would be a fine wedding present.
Again, congratulations.