Households tend to insure the paycheck and skip the person running everything else. If one spouse stays home with the kids, price out what they actually do. Childcare, driving, scheduling, cooking, and sometimes caring for a parent on top. If that work had to be hired out next month, the invoice would stagger you. A death benefit on the at-home spouse exists so grief doesn't arrive with a staffing crisis attached.
That's the protection case, and it stands on its own. For families building the cash value way, there's a second case. Two policies mean two growing pools of money. More room to fund under the MEC rules. And two people whose insurability is locked in. A policy on each spouse turns one contract into the start of a household plan. More of the family's saving happens inside contracts the family controls. The long version of that idea lives at Lifetime LOC.
Insurers size coverage on a non-earning spouse relative to the earning spouse's coverage. If the breadwinner carries little or no insurance, the carrier won't issue a large policy on the at-home partner. The working spouse's house generally needs to be in order first, and the second policy builds from there.
Health can also reshuffle the plan in your favor. When one spouse has a history that draws a table rating, the healthier spouse's policy can carry more of the funding load while still protecting both. I covered how ratings actually work in Applying With a Health History.
And once both spouses are covered, the natural next question is the kids. Policies on children are a different decision, with different math. And What a Policy on Your Kid Is Actually Buying gives you the straight version, along with the for your kids page. Build the coverage in order: breadwinner, spouse, then the next generation.