One of my friends is about to be dumped off their parents' health insurance and are in the all-american sweet spot of 'too-poor to afford insurance', 'too-rich for medicaid'. We joked about getting married so they could get on my insurance because my union takes care of me pretty good but I'm worried I don't understand the implications enough to make a good decision.
What does getting married actually mean?
Marriage is basically like forming a partnership where all assets and debts accrued during the partnership are generally owned jointly even after divorce. Student debts incurred before the marriage can also be impacted in terms of benefits given for low income debtors. There are also income tax filing implications which may be more favorable to the both of you if one earns less than the other. You could file married filing separately or married filing jointly but these are things to consider down the line and just use any free service like the IRS free file or Freetaxusa.