“Should I Pay for My Boyfriend’s Insurance?”
Nov 20, 2006 
Sun
My boyfriend and I have lived together for 10 years (no kids), and we get along fine. Recently he found out I can add him to the health insurance I get from the company I work for part-time. He wants me to do this to save him money, but I don't want to. He owns our house and earns 10 times more than I do, and it's hard enough for me to feel independent without adding more entanglements. Am I wrong to say no?
This is a story in CNNMoney today. We have already seen a story before when another woman asked if she had to help pay her boyfriend's thirty-some-grand debt.
Of course, one distinct point of the woman in the story is that she depends on her boyfriend to give her shelter for the past 10 years. As the article said, "asking to be added to your health insurance policy strikes us as a reasonable request coming, as it does, from someone who's been providing you with a home."
Finally, the author of the article gave some advices for people who are "in bounds" and face the same dilemma of trying to be "independent" on one hand and relying their partner heavily on the other:
you're faced with two choices here: earn enough to be genuinely independent or accept the fact that you aren't. What you can't do, however, is take the position that your independence is compromised by the "entanglements" that benefit your partner (like the health insurance), but not by the ones that benefit you (like living rent-free).
If it was me, I don't think I can say No. After I had saved tens of thousands of rent money for 10 years, I don't really have the power to reject such a request, though it doesn't mean I have to do whatever my partner asked me to do simply because I relied so much on my partner.
If you have this problem, what would be your answer? Yes or No?
My response to this question would be, “Why is he still only your boyfriend after ten years?” She sounds like a freeloader, and there’s probably a GOOD reason she doesn’t want to be “entangled” with him financially. She’s a selfish committmophobe.
I think they should either get married or break up.
Hi dimes:
I had the same feeling that the woman in the story didn’t really appreciate what her boyfriend had given to her. If I were her, I will do this small favor as a gesture of appreciation. The story didn’t say much about the reason she rejected the request, but if it’s only because she wants more independence, then by living together for 10 years didn’t really say that.