Terri Carlson has been proposed to well over 1,000 times this week.
The 45-year-old divorced mother from California has taken her search for a husband worldwide via YouTube, and while she says she is looking for love, there's something she's looking for even more: health insurance.
"I don't care what you look like. But what I do care about is how good your health insurance is. So, you want me to respond to you? Attach your health-care benefit information," she practically purrs into the Web cam.
Below the video, a line of comments continues to grow: "I sent you a message an hour ago on a different video, but let me add, with military insurance, as long as we use a military doctor, it's free and it's for life. I offer this to you. Contact me!"
"I am not a drinker, and I don't smoke or ever hit a woman. I don't argue, I am 55, decent-looking and financially responsible," says one potential husband.
Another reply simply states, "Give Canada a shot."
The attention is flattering, but Carlson also knows that the flirting could save her life.
Tired of waiting for health-care reform that she no longer believes is coming, last week she launched Will Marry for Health Insurance, a Web site on which she lays herself, and her problems, out for all the world to see. Ever since, the media has flocked.
But is she a savvy victim, a poster woman for the uninsured masses? Or maybe even a reality TV star in the making? After the jump, Lemondrop's exclusive interview with the embattled mom.
First, what exactly is ailing her? Carlson has a rare genetic disorder called C4 Complement Deficiency -- an autoimmune disease that prevents her body from being able to fight off infection. "I'll get over a virus, but I have all of these antibodies that won't clear out of my body," she told Lemondrop. "My body thinks there is still an infection even though there's not and attacks itself."
Carlson's doctors keep her on steroids to keep inflammation down, and antibiotics to treat the immune suppression side effects of the steroids. On a good day, she's only taking 10 different prescriptions. On a bad day, it could be 20.
After her divorce, Carlson, who was a stay-at-home mother to four children for 24 years, discovered that while she was eligible for government assistance programs like Social Security, she didn't have the 10 or so years in the workforce required to be supported.
http://www.lemondrop.com/2010/02/05/will-marry-for-health-insurance-one-womans-desperate-quest/?icid=main|hp-desktop|dl8|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemondrop.com%2F2010%2F02%2F05%2Fwill-marry-for-health-insurance-one-womans-desperate-quest%2F
http://www.willmarryforhealthinsurance.com/
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