There’s no doubt about it - enduring the many challenges and changes of a divorce can be incredibly stressful, painful, and exhausting. One of the most potentially confusing elements of a divorce can be how to split up health insurance benefits with out sacrificing coverage and cost. As many divorcing couples often fear for their own health and wellbeing, as well as their children’s health protection, ensuring that your health insurance is consistently reliable is absolutely imperative.
Divorce, Children, and Health Insurance
Separating From a Primary Policy Holder
While divorce and separations can cause a great deal of pain and tension between a husband and wife, experts recommend that any bitterness or anger be set aside when it comes to determining the division of health benefits. As children should undoubtedly be provided with adequate and reliable health insurance protection, a spouse who has been the primary policy holder may benefit from simply continuing coverage benefits to their soon to be ex-spouse. While insurance policy regulations will certainly vary, some companies permit a primary policy holder to offer coverage and benefits for an ex-spouse for a limited or permanent range of time. This option generally allows children to continue to benefit from health insurance without any interruptions and significant alterations to a policy.
Divorce Between Two Primary Policy Holders
If both spouses are primary health insurance policy holders through their individual employers, then a separating couple must specifically clarify which parent will be the primary provider upon the finality of the divorce. If both parents hold their own primary policies, then one parent must be agreed to act as the “primary” insurer, while the other parent must act as the “secondary” insurer. As the primary carrier, a parent will cover most of the major costs and expenses of caring for their child’s or children’s health. As the secondary carrier, a parent will typically help cover any additional costs that are not specifically covered by the primary carrier.
If you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse are debating over which parent should claim each role, then a husband and wife can contact their insurance provider for more details and potential support. Commonly, insurance companies employ a “birthday rule,” wherein the parent with the earlier calendar birthday in a year will act as the primary carrier of insurance.
