Celibate Homosexual Civil Marriage?

[aroosi]

Thorolfr:

aroosi:

If a partner really needs insurance badly (let’s say the person cannot live without a costly medical treatment or has a chronic disability) I can see how the idea of a civil union could be tempting to help him/her even if there is a chaste SSA relationship.

But I am just speculating.
For what we know OP’s question may be purely intellectual.

Would it be better for someone to die because they couldn’t get the health care they needed for a serious medical condition than to commit the “sin” of entering into a same-sex civil union to get the health care they needed that way?

While not answering that question, I’d earnestly suggest a society that makes what you suggest a relevant option has lost its way.

I totally agree. There are tools in place for people sick and without health insurance, but there is a good chance to end up in deep debt or to receive only very basic care.

 

[Thorolfr]

I totally agree. There are tools in place for people sick and without health insurance, but there is a good chance to end up in deep debt or to receive only very basic care.

There are still some places in the US where people without health insurance can’t get the health care they need. This is particularly true for states that did not expand medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. People who have to go to the emergency room aren’t going to get medications there for chronic health conditions and charities aren’t equipped to handle many people with expensive or complicated chronic health conditions. I was reading an article last year which quoted someone who worked for a clinic in Texas that serves people with no insurance and she said that they found it almost impossible to find specialists to whom they could refer cancer patients, for example.

 

[Thorolfr]

Thorolfr:

Would it be better for someone to die because they couldn’t get the health care they needed for a serious medical condition than to commit the “sin” of entering into a same-sex civil union to get the health care they needed that way?

This is known as fraud: entering into a civil marriage under false pretenses— obtaining benefits. Whether hetero- or homosexual, it’s wrong.

A person in need of health care, and health insurance, can obtain it through their own employer, on a public insurance exchange, or through state Medicaid programs depending on their situation and what they qualify for.

It’s a false dichotomy to say the only choices are commit fraud or die.

You’re wrong if you think that everyone in the US can somehow get health insurance. There are many employers who don’t provide health insurance for their employees and some of those employees make a little too much to qualify for any of the subsidies on one of the Affordable Care Act exchanges and can’t afford the premiums and copays on the insurance they can get there. And if they live in a state like Texas that didn’t expand medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they wouldn’t qualify for medicaid either. There was a story not that long ago about a young guy in his mid twenties who had Type I diabetes and got his insulin because he was on his mother’s health insurance. But when he turned 26, he lost his health insurance. He worked for a restaurant that didn’t provide insurance to its employees and he couldn’t afford insurance on one of the exchanges. And he didn’t qualify for medicaid. He was dead within a year because he was skimping on the insulin he was able to buy.

And before the Affordable Care Act which the Trump administration is trying to overturn in the courts, lots of people had no health care coverage. If they had pre-existing conditions, they couldn’t buy individual insurance and if they were unemployed or worked for a business that didn’t offer its employees insurance, they were just out of luck. Many people in states that didn’t expand their medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act can’t qualify for medicaid no matter how poor they are unless they’re disabled.

Also, I didn’t say that people should fraudulently enter into same-sex unions. But I don’t see why the Catholic Church would object to same-sex couples who enter into civil unions of some sort to get health insurance. Many same-sex couples in the past registered as “domestic partners” at a time when health insurance was one of the main benefits that could be obtained as a result. More than 20 years ago, my partner was able to add me to his health insurance after we registered as domestic partners in the city where we lived. I was working for a temp agency that didn’t provide me with any health insurance and I couldn’t get individual health insurance because I had pre-existing conditions.