Medical care expenses and coverage for children after divorce

Many people think of child support as regularly occurring payments from one parent to the other. While this is an important point of child support, there is something else to think about. This is medical insurance and costs for medical care. These points should be included in your child custody plan.

If you and your ex both have the ability to include your children on your health insurance plans, you might opt to do this. One of the plans could be the primary insurance plan and the other would be a secondary plan. Ultimately, this could mean that you aren’t responsible for as many out-of-pocket expenses due to the dual coverage.

If only one parent can have the child on their insurance policy, there is a chance that the out-of-pocket medical care costs will be considerable. You and your ex need to decide up front who is going to pay for these costs. Many people split the out-of-pocket costs and uninsured expenses. If you do this, make sure that you get the agreement in writing so that you can refer to it later if questions come up.

Children who have special health concerns might present their parents with some challenging situations. Deciding how to handle these now might make things easier in the future. Some things to think about include how you will pay for special care needs, such as home health care, and who is going to make important medical decisions for the child.

In all of these cases, including the decisions in the child custody order might help to keep things straight. It can also help you if you end up having to take legal action to get your ex to live up to the deal.

Source: Our Family Wizard, “3 Key Topics on Managing a Child’s Medical Care After Divorce,” accessed Sep. 28, 2017