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Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with another Family Law Matters, joining Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group, located right here in Mission Valley in San Diego. Hi Bonnie. Michael, how are you doing today? I’m doing well, thank you very much.

You are as central in San Diego County as it gets, and that really makes it easier for people to actually come see you in your actually beautiful offices. Bonnie, I want to talk today about maintaining health insurance through a divorce. Divorce affects obviously nearly every aspect of life, and I like what you say, Primus Family Law.

You tell people divorce means the end of a marriage, it’s not the end of life, but divorce does impact so much, including health insurance. What are the biggest challenges that people face in maintaining coverage after a divorce? Well, as you probably know, because we’ve done a couple of these, the person who covers both parties is required to maintain that coverage until the divorce is final. And then when the divorce is final, the person who is not covered by an employer, they don’t have their own benefits, has to go out in the marketplace and find insurance.

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And as you know, that can be very expensive. Not everybody qualifies for covered California, although that is an option. Sometimes there’s COBRA coverage through your former spouse’s employment.

They have to offer you a few years, but it’s very expensive, Michael. But you know what’s interesting is you can negotiate that within your divorce. So if you’re being paid spousal support, that is one of the factors that goes into the calculation of spousal support is how much it’s going to cost you for insurance.

So your spouse may be required to cover some of that through negotiation in your spousal support payment. Or you can divide the assets a little bit differently to allow for a pot of money so you can fund your own insurance. There’s ways to negotiate so that you maintain it for a little bit.

Another way, Michael, a way a lot of people are choosing to do is to delay the termination of your marital status. So your judgment’s processed, everything’s done, you’ve divided everything, but you’re not single until sometime in the future, giving that other spouse some time to find good quality and affordable insurance. So how do courts handle health insurance in divorce settlements and disputes? Can a spouse be required to cover the other person’s insurance costs? Like I said, that can be something that is factored into spousal support or perhaps in the division of assets, depending on that other person’s need.

If you married somebody, for example, who became disabled during the marriage, and they obviously have pre-existing conditions and require a different level of health insurance, that may be something that a court would consider in maintaining the marital standard of living for that spouse or that partner because they were used to having pretty good health insurance for their disabilities. What about for children? How do children and their health coverage enter into this? Children are covered by, as long as they are minors, they are covered by usually the payor of child support, unless the other party has benefits amazing through their employer, and they can do it themselves as well. If they can both cover the children, you know, we always say cover as much as you can so you’re not paying out of pocket.

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But children are covered until they’re pretty much ineligible to be recovered. Sounds like a very important topic that doesn’t get enough attention, and I appreciate your wise counsel on this. If people have questions about their health insurance coverage and the health insurance coverage of their children, and they want to be in touch with you at Primus Family Law here in San Diego, Mission Valley, how can they be in touch with you? They can reach us directly at 619-574-8000, and you’ll be put on mine or one of my associates’ amazing, amazing associates’ calendars.

Their calendar is not always so amazing, for a free 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation so we can see how we can help you.