letsgo
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Over 15 years married here. Companionship, support, shared resources, the naughty stuff, the security of those shared promises to each other. The only downside is that you can’t just live for yourself any more, everything has to be negotiated, but that doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate areas of freedom.
Of course it’s not for everyone, some feel they can achieve all the above by mutual agreement without involving any certificates or vows. Maybe for some reason they prefer a situation either of them can just walk away from.
OPs’ problem is not marriage, it’s the USA’s completely fucked-up health system.
Huh? When are you guys celebrating Halloween? The only Friday 13ths in 2024 are in September and December.
Also I thought the calendar cycles every 400 years. So if Fri 13th Oct 2024 exists, which it doesn’t, then Fri 13th Oct 1624 and 2424 also, er, don’t exist.
♫ In the year 2424, if trolls are still alive… ♫
Brit here. Not saying the NHS has no problems, long waiting lists being the most obvious, and on a practical/personal note shared wards, but at least in principle if the doc says you need X then you get X. There’s no beancounter to persuade that you really need this thing who then says no anyway. There might be another step: GP -> specialist -> diagnosis -> solution but in principle it’s pretty straightforward. It’s funded by a 9% tax so you pay according to your ability, and it’s free at the point of delivery to all British citizens.
If the solution is a pill or potion from the chemist then you get it free if you’re on a low income, but at a capped price on prescription.
Because it’s free to use, you (can) go to the doc as soon as you have a problem, unlike in the USA where you dread massive bills so you hope it goes away on its own, meanwhile it gets worse so you go when you have to and when the bills are at their highest. And because the NHS is tied into the government who regulate the pharmaceutical industry they (should but don’t always) get best prices on everything, along with bulk discounts because it’s just one buyer for the whole country.
I’m probably oversimplifying a lot here; I don’t work in the NHS so this is just my view as an outsider. I think there are some regional variations; every so often “NHS postcode lottery” comes up in the news, but I don’t know how they work.
Ah but that’s where all this gender fluidity/ambiguity gets interesting. OP might be a trans-dude, so “she” (apologies for the hypothetical deadgendering but it’s illustrative) would technically then be straight with no risk of butt defects (unless they did that of course) but with some risk of birth defects as he could then have been impregnated by his dad.