Health Insurance and Divorce in Georgia

In a divorce involving children, most often children end up with two houses and two parents looking after them. It is vital to have health insurance for the children wherever they are or whomever they are staying with. Maintaining heath insurance for children when they are in custody of two different individuals is very complicated. Working out a method to do so would help in negotiations with regard to divorce settlements.

To maintain health insurance it is important to clarify certain things like:

Who should be responsible for the insurance taken? If you or your spouse has group health insurance through employer, then it is easy. There is no need to change any status. If both of you do not have group health insurance, then decisions regarding insurance and costs would have to be sorted out. You need to negotiate with spouse to purchase insurance together and share the payment of premiums. The decision so reached has to be written and added to final divorce settlement.

If both you and your spouse have group coverage then, one plan should be considered primary and other secondary. The secondary plan should cover those not covered in primary plan. The decision has to be made regarding which parent would carry primary plan and which parent would have the secondary plan. Mostly, this decision can be taken in consultation with insurance companies.

In cases where concerned child suffers from a pre existing medical condition, it would be in best interests to retain group insurance (if any) carried by you and your spouse since a new insurance would not pay for already existing medical conditions. Group insurance does not exempt payment for pre existing conditions.

In addition to payments for health insurance, co pays also have to be accounted for. Usually, it is observed that both parents in a divorce agree to pay a percentage of all co pays. Maybe, the custodial mother has to shell out for 30% of pocket medical expenses and the non custodial father needs to pay for 60% of pocket medical expenses. The financial situation of each parent is taken into consideration in deciding this percentage ratio.

The plans of sharing health insurance are written in the final divorce settlement and are binding on the parents. But the problem is far fro over. More often than not, it has been observed that parents do not follow through with the arrangements. To avoid such discrepancies, it is vital to make a contract with the child’s doctor stating that the bills would be paid partly by one spouse and partly by other. This contract has to be signed by both parents and record kept at the billing office at the doctors. This would avoid confusion regarding medical bills and save lot of ill feel ings between those involved.