Health Insurance Quandary (debt, financial, costs, recession)

[ccsutton]

I have a quandary I'm trying to think through and could use some help/reactions.

My boyfriend and I are planning on marrying later this year. He has run his own business for the past three years, and unfortunately the recession has taken its toll and he's having to shut it down. Due to the precarious state of his finances the past couple of years, he hasn't bought health insurance. So he is, today, uninsured and has no assets. I don't know how little one has to earn to be entitled to Medicaid but he's unlikely to qualify because he did earn approximately 30-40k last year; the costs of running the business, however, exceeded that.

I am currently changing careers and attending school for a second bachelor's degree. I am on the school's health insurance plan. I have a fair amount of savings that we're planning on living off of while I'm in school/making our nest egg.

Over the past few months, he's developed symptoms that have us both worried: frequent headaches, double/blurred vision, waking up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, and symptoms of an ulcer. These things could be related or separate incidents - who knows.

Here's the question: considering we're going to get married anyway, would it make more sense to a) go to a justice of the peace ASAP, put him on my insurance plan and then run the medical gauntlet?; or b) since he has no assets, should he go to the ER and (potentially) incur tends of thousands (or more) in costs if any/all of these symptoms are the result of something serious -- letting that debt stay with him as a single person?

I want to get him looked at as soon as possible, but in the most cost-effective way possible. What's the best way to do this so we get him help fast but don't torpedo ourselves financially?

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.