Guest Author - Bonnie Sayers

Is this a new twist under Marriages of Convenience - instead of marrying to avoid illegal immigration, tying the knot to receive insurance benefits. This is the situation on the ABC hit show Desperate Housewives.

The character that Teri Hatcher portrays is a writer with no health insurance benefits. She has been divorced for three years and has a teenage daughter. This would mean that the daughter has no insurance, unless she is still covered under her Father's policy. This has not been explored on the show, but an interesting point to make having a single parent uninsured with no mention of whether the child is covered insurance wise.

The current storyline started with the character Susan visiting a Doctor's office for a routine exam. She was impressed with the young Doctor and feined illness for another visit. This in turn led to Susan's many tests to explore what this illness was that she concocted. Even though Susan came clean to the young Doctor it turned out she needed to have surgery to correct her spleen.

The surgery cannot wait, although Susan has not been honest with the Doctor that she has no medical insurance. One week Edie Britt, played by Nicollette Sheridan hooked up Susan Mayer with a gay man. They were all set to get married when the guy's partner protested and they walked out.

This past week Susan speaks with her ex-husband, who also happens to be living with Edie about her predicament when Karl decides they will remarry so Susan can get the operation the following week. Karl is a lawyer with a great health insurance plan. Karl even mentions that Susan will be fully covered the minute the marriage is official.

Could this be a new trend in selecting a spouse? Is it true that coverage begins immediately upon marriage for the spouse? I would think you would need to fill out some forms through the insurance plan and check with the Administrator before finalizing insurance needs upon a marriage.

If you are combining property insurance the amount of coverage would have to be increased to accommodate additional property. The automobile insurance would have to be changed to add each person to the policy if they would be driving each other's vehicles. Your insurance agent would have to be consulted with to make arrangements before getting married to find out when coverage begins.

Changes also need to be made when becoming a parent, whether adopting a child or having your own baby. These changes need to be made over time and with preparations on coverage needs and adapting family needs. At some point when you become engaged the subject of insurance needs does have to be explored.

There is a commercial that airs for State Farm showing a couple who got married and combined their belongings into one place. The new wife is not happy with some of the husband's items coming into the new home, while she admits he has the better insurance plan. Here is where you can save some money if one plan is better than the other and add the spouse to that policy while dropping the other policy. This should give you more money in the paycheck of the one who gives up the insurance.

These are definitely areas that need to be addressed when considering living together or getting married. Some insurance coverage can be consolidated into one plan, while others have benefits for married persons, like auto insurance. You can obtain property insurance through the same carrier as your auto for a discount in many cases, depending on the insurance carrier.

For Life Insurance you will have to change the beneficiaries once you are married and consider adding Disability Insurance for both of you. There are many changes that take place with a marriage - Insurance should not be overlooked nor be considered for a marriage of convenience.