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Hi everyone, welcome to another Family Law Matters. I’m Dr. Michael Mantell joining Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group. Hi, Bonnie.
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Hi, Michael. How are you doing today? I’m doing well, Bonnie. I think that we need to clear something up that we haven’t cleared up in a couple of these Family Law Matters.
I’ll let you do it. Ah, okay. So everybody keeps asking if Michael and I are related, if we are either husband and wife, or brother and sister, or, you know, all sorts of other things.
And we are not. We are not related. His last name has two L’s, mine has one, and I’m married into that name, and the person I married is also not related to him.
We just ended up being very good friends, and it was going kidinky. Here we are. No kickbacks here.
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No, nothing. No family benefits. No nepotism whatsoever.
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Bonnie, the question today is about health insurance. Now, this has become a very difficult topic for everybody on the planet. I have Medicare, I have Medi-Cal, I have Medicaid, I have this insurance, I have that insurance.
Does it cover this medication? But when there’s a divorce, and you’re going to lose your health insurance, that becomes frightening. People are, I think, very concerned, appropriately so. How do you help those people? What information can you give us about health insurance through a divorce? Sure.
And you are correct, Michael. If you’re going to get divorced and you are covered under your spouse’s insurance through employment, not a private insurance, we can deal with that in a second, but through their employment, once the divorce is final, the employer, you’re no longer dependent, so your insurance goes away. So, one thing you may be entitled to is COBRA.
COBRA insurance is from the employer for an ex-spouse, but it’s really expensive. Okay, that’s the problem. It’s the same insurance, but it’s all of a sudden now really expensive.
So then there’s the issue of how do we try to deal with that? Well, you know, if people are older and they’re getting divorced, it may be better just to have a legal separation. A lot of employers still allow for a spouse, you’re legally separated, so you are still married, but you are divided, everything else, to be covered by the insurance. Some employers won’t allow that.
In the case where there aren’t employers that won’t even allow legal separation, then what we try to do is maybe we add in what we believe is an estimated amount that the insurance will cost this person, and when we’re calculating support, so that maybe the other side will be helping in some way, shape, or form as covering, you know, part of the cost. We try to negotiate as best as possible for the reasonableness of the situation. And what if there are children involved who are benefiting from health insurance? Does the health insurance continue for the children? Yes.
Okay, great. It does, yes. So it’s not as frightening as some people make it out to be.
But I can understand when you don’t know what the options are, or all you’ve ever heard of is COBRA, which you know ends up being now triple what you were paying before, it could be very daunting. And then when you look at what’s happening in the world today with our insurance situation, and every year it goes up, and it’s hard to get private health insurance, and maybe you don’t qualify for Medicare, you’re just about it. Or you know, you’re sitting in a situation that you don’t know what you’re going to do.
It can be scary. And we try to see how best to manage that. Well, you bring a personal touch to all of your clients.
And if people have questions about this, how do you bring your comforting, knowledgeable touch to people for a free 30-minute consultation? They can reach us directly, Michael. It’s 619-574-8000. And you’ll be put on mine or one of my team’s calendar for that free 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation.
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Or you can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. There’s a live chat agent and there’s a form to fill out and always lead back to a consultation. Terrific. Very helpful.
Another great Family Law Matters. Thank you so much, Bonnie. We’ll see you next time.
Thank you, Michael. Have a great week.