Loving Couple's Divorce Official

Mary McCurnin and Ron Bednar's divorce papers have arrived in the mail. The Rancho Cordova, Calif. couple wasn't having marital trouble -- they still love each other. But after illness, bankruptcy, more illness, and then unemployment, they're just plain out of money. Divorce, perversely, offers the best chance for the couple to grow old together.

That's because if she's not married, McCurnin, 59, will soon be eligible to receive $1,200 a month in Social Security widow's benefits from her previous marriage. Her first husband, a doctor to whom she'd been married 20 years, passed away in 1989.

They need that money for basic living expenses. They're both graphic artists, and they say neither of them has had much luck finding work.

"We literally live from week to week," McCurnin told the Huffington Post in September. "We got $300 in the bank."

McCurnin wrote in a Firedoglake post that last week they received two thick envelopes making the divorce official. She posted several pictures from their wedding eleven years ago.

McCurnin and Bednar each emailed the Huffington Post in response to an item about a woman staging a "debtors' revolt." They were in separate rooms of their house, and without realizing what the other one was doing, both happened to write that they considered it "un-American" to pay off their high-interest credit card debt.

There's a bright side: McCurnin and Bednar can remarry as soon as they want after McCurnin gets her survivor's benefits without jeopardizing them (but they'll lose the tax advantage and indemnity from each other's potential debts). McCurnin wrote that the second wedding will happen on Bednar's 65th birthday next August, when he'll be eligible for Medicare and can stop crossing his uninsured fingers for good health.

Comments

[royevatom]

I was in New Orleans one night, along a block wall beneath a street lamp some one had sprayed this lament, "the humane race is not".

[Gernuser]

Congratulations to to Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize

If you like finance & econ news you'll like: http://pie.im/af30

Obama needs to carry out actual heath care & financial reform. Needs to get things done instead of just talking and planning.

[mamacat]

A lot of seniors are in the situation where one or both members of a couple would lose sorely needed survivor benefits if they get legally married. What is surprising about this couple is that they did not realise the financial penalties for getting married before they tied the knot.

Besides, once the kids are out of the nest, and one partner has died, what need is there for another marriage? Seems to me that the primary function of marriage is to provide a stable environment for raising children.

[Gernuser]

More work needs ot be done

Good articles: http://pie.im/af30

[MyTalkRadiou]

Obama needs to do actual reform instead of just talk & plan

good articles: http://br.st/tU

~~

[Tiger99]

Once again another non-story... They divorce to take advantage of the system and then will remarry...
So just excactly what is the point that is trying to be made? Kinda like the Debtors Revolt being started by someone who had the money to pay off her debts...

[munki]

The HEADLINE is ???able.

No one can force anyone to get divorce, but... the poor system we have may circumstantially pressure people to get divorce for monetary reasons.

This has to be changed!!!! ANOTHER LAUNDRY LIST TO REFORM!!!

REFORM!!!

[Cambridge9]

Back in the 1960s I lived next door to a couple who loved each other. However, she had MS and needed constant care. He worked two jobs to try to pay for her care. Eventually the only way he had to make sure she was taken care of as she got worse, was to divorce her so she could go on Medicaid.

The irony was that shortly after the divorce he died of a heart attack while she lived a few more years in a nursing home.

[blackfriday1978]

There are a lot of post commented that this couple deserve this or they "fraud" the system. Once again:


Dear Insurance employees,

We got your point! You want to protect your pay-check, we got that. Now go back to deny some more claims and cut off more ordinary Americans' lives. Sleep well tonight.

[DRaymond]

This is in fact way more common than a lot of you realize.

A lot of people think that California's Domestic Partnership law is just for gays and lesbians, but in reality a very large number of seniors are using it in order to preserve their benefits. One of the loopholes of the federal government being so obstinate in refusing to consider a domestic partnership to be equivalent in any way to marriage!

I suspect the same thing goes on in any state with a Domestic Partnership Law.

[Granfalloon]

Please modify the headline to read "Old Cynics Exploit Marriage Status for Financial Gain".

[pakaal]

Generous to a fault.

[HatingTheGame]

Don't forget to say "for $1200 a month" that'll show how big cynics they are, innit?

[GBGB]

This couple is gaming the system for your tax dollars (at best) or committing fraud (at worst). I really don't care that much because this couple is obviously in pretty bad financial condition, but what is to stop a couple who is doing well financially from doing the same thing?

[WorkingClass]

People get married and unmarried all the time for financial reasons without even asking you. Don't worry. We all break even in the end.

[thedave108]

Get a life GBGB - gaming the system - fraud? Have you been paying attention to what's happened lately - or the last 100 years or so? What they did was legal so it wasn't fraud. Shrewd - not gaming. the banksters, health ins. cos. pharmaceuticals, gov't cheaters, they're the frauds and criminals. Citizens trying to find a way to survive in a maze of cards stacked against them are not. If youre worried about tax dollars - what about the trillion or so for the war - the 1.5 trillion gift to Pakistan - the trillions we give to the criminals that run israhel. The 3.2 trillion that that simply disappeared from the defense dept. on Sept 10, 2001 (no coincidence there I'm sure) Instead if these people get an extra $1,000 or 2 a month for 20 years - it's not EVEN a drop in any bucket compared to all THAT criminality. Come on now........

[mockley]

You should be picketing Wall Street. Those thieves are working the system to the tune of $1200 a second!

[LiberalBuzz]

Gaming the system?

Seriously?

For a lousy 1200 bucks to stay alive?

You SHOULD be getting on your congressman/woman to go after the REAL system gamers

WALL STREET.

But as far as I am concerned people like them can do what it takes to survive. Wall Street on the other hand?

They can go to h/ell

[stagebandman]

Party of family values, my foot!

[srose74]

This should not have to happen in America!!!

[Granfalloon]

Exactly! How about we overall the ludicrous Social "Security" system so that you have an actual financial stake in what you put into the system as opposed to the whims of when you or your spouse kicks the bucket.

[efmo]

wow, considering this couple's medical problems, that sounds a little harsh. Also, keep in mind, her late husband paid alot of money in social security that went to pay for other folks with the expectation that he would collect from others when he retired. Since he didn't, the system is probably already ahead. The spouse doesn't collect the whole amount the working spouse would have.

[Tommygun264]

You're talking about privatization of Social Security - a proven failure as illustrated by the so-called "Chilean Miracle". At least that's what the privatization of the government pension system was called until the Chilean markets crashed and millions of elderly and disabled citizens were plunged into abject poverty. Just think what would have happened if Bush had succeeded in privatizing Social Security prior to the most recent market crash. The Social Security system you are so dismissive of brought 2/3 of America's elderly out of poverty. Prior to the institution of Social Security, it was common for thousands of elderly and disabled Americans to literally starve and freeze to death in the streets or in their homes every year. Is the Social Security system perfect? No. But privatization, or "giving people a financial stake" as you call it is a recipe for disaster. Want to make Social Security solvent in perpetuity and increase the amount paid to each recipients while at the same time reducing the FICA withheld from worker's paychecks to 4%, as opposed to the current rate of 6%? Remove the cap - make people who earn more than $89,000 per year pay FICA on 100% of their income, just like everyone who makes less than $89,000 per year has to.

[GoingApricot]

Dear G-d, people, click the link and get the facts before you rattle on about their poor savings plans.

"In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery. Now, after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living expenses, they're broke."

[AllieMD]

What kind of insurance only pays 10% of anything? Sounds like they skimped on something as important as health insurance.

-They haven't made a payment on either of their mortgages in two months and fully expect a foreclosure.-

Either mortgage? Why didn't they sell one of the houses to pay for the other? Their financial issues started long before the current economic crisis.

$10,000 in credit card debt?

[SionShankel]

Selling a house is not possible in many markets these days. And they used the houses to milk money from them to pay the bills so their worth is really low now.

It is mind boggling how many folks have no clue to what these medical costs are. We are talking in the six figures ( the costs of a home) for the combo of two rounds of breast cancer and open heart surgery,..plus the expenses of not being able to work during those long recoveries.

So if a person is faced with homelessness but life saved through surgery and chemo or having a home you die in due to lack of insurance... which is the right choice? Which one is the most Conservative? Which one is the most Liberal? Which would you choose for your self or a loved one?

[swift goat pet for truth]

"What kind of insurance only pays 10% of anything? Sounds like they skimped on something as important as health insurance."

They are lucky they were not completely denied.

As for how much they saved, welcome to middle class America.
Sounds like you are out of touch.

[efmo]

well, if they are graphic artists & were in business for themselves, they may not have had the same options in terms of cost & coverage that people who work for large corporations do or govt (state/fed) or maybe they found out too late how little coverage they actually had. It's kind of hard to fight insurance companies when you are going through a serious illness.

[Tommygun264]

You are aware that many health care insurance plans have both annual and lifetime caps on coverage, aren't you? That means that no matter how much you've paid in premiums for how long, once your medical expenses reach the amount of the cap, your coverage ends, either until the next year in the case of an annual cap, or forever in the case of an annual cap. It's easy to sit back, cluck your tongue and prattle on about personal responsibility and making poor choices, until you find yourself on the short end of the stick. You like to tell yourself that it could never happen to you because you are too smart and have too much foresight. But the simple fact is that under our current system it's possible to play by the rules, make all the wise choices, do everything right and still end up losing everything. People who like to pontificate about personal responsibility do so because they can't bring themselves to face the horrible truth, which is that more times than not, the only thing that separates the winners from the losers is pure luck and nothing more.

[Liz Holy]

For a party that is supposedly pro-marriage you think that the Republicans would be appalled by this situation and would want to do something to fix our clearly broken healthcare system so this wouldn't destroy other marriages, but hey, as long as "the gays" can't get married who cares about everyone else!

[AllieMD]

As even the article says - it's just a checkmark at the courthouse - these two are still very married in the ways that matter. Was completely their choice to get a divorce - plenty of people face the same situation and don't divorce - instead sticking with the 'for better or worse, in sickness and in health" part. Not saying they are right or not - just saying that most people put more value on their vows than money - and don't do this.

[SionShankel]

It is clear that their VOWS are still intact they are just forced to do this bullshit legal maneuver to save each other. Sounds like the marriage vows I ascribe too.. damn the law its about saving your partner.

[kgb999]

Hmmmmm .... MD eh???

[Konnie]

an 80 year old friend of mine and her second "husband" found an understanding priest that married
them in the eyes of God, and sort of forgot about the eyes of the state.............so they got
to keep previous financial incomes. its happening more and more people, get a clue.

[DragonMama]

My marriage vows are entirely separate from a government document. From my perspective, your view cheapens the marriage relationship to little more than a corporate agreement if the paper is more important than making sure basic human needs - shelter, food, safety, health, etc - are taken care of. My marriage is an agreement with my husband and our families, not my government. Separation of church and state - civil unions for legally consenting adult humans who want them, weddings/marriages for those who who the extra step to make the extra commitment before family, friends, and/or God. This couple dissolved their civil union, not their marriage. They ARE honoring their vows - in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer - vows made by people longer than this country & it's marriage laws have been in existence - to the best of their ability, given the governmental constraints. How small is your experience and world-view that you can't see that?