There are few events in a person’s life that can create the stress, anxiety, and frustration that a divorce produces. Much of the stress is related to untangling the lives of two people that have been joined for years, a process that often takes time, patience, and some degree of cooperation. One area of particular concern for divorcing spouses is health care coverage. A person’s health is not something that should be compromised or shortchanged, and if a person has health insurance through a spouse and is contemplating divorce, figuring out what to expect and how to maintain continuous coverage can be overwhelming. This issue may even be one that slips through the cracks as most divorcing spouses are concerned about child custody, support, and property division above other potential concerns, unless there is an ongoing medical problem. However, keeping consistent health insurance coverage is both required by federal law and important for catching health problems before they become serious. There are several options for keeping coverage, and a discussion of each will follow below.

Legal Separation

As a preliminary point, it should be noted that once a divorce is finalized, the party offering insurance coverage must take the former spouse off the policy. If a couple is not ready to take that final step, or wants to give the spouse who will lose coverage more time to figure that issue out, there is one short term option. Indiana law  allows couples to ask for a stopgap measure is called legal separation. Legal separation is granted when a court determines that the present circumstances make it intolerable for the parties to live together, but they still want to remain married. A legal separation is only valid for one year, and allows the parties to ask for child support and limited property division while they attempt to work things out. If healthcare coverage is of major concern, this legal mechanism will allow the spouse who will lose coverage more time, which could be especially important if the spouse has been out of the workforce for a long period of time.

COBRA

Another longer, but still short-term option is to elect to pay for COBRA coverage. Federal law requires employers in Indiana that provide group coverage to offer eligible dependents the opportunity to continue insurance coverage when coverage is lost due to the occurrence of a specific event. Divorce is one of the events that triggers a loss of coverage for the former spouse. The covered employee has 30 days from the time the divorce decree is issued to notify an employer about the event. Once that notice that given, the former spouse has 60 days to elect to continue coverage on his or her own. When electing to continue coverage, the former spouse has the option to select less coverage than what was offered under the employer plan to save money. Given that he or she will now be responsible for paying the employer’s contribution to the premium, plus the employee’s share, selecting lesser coverage may be worth considering if health concerns allow for it. This coverage only lasts 36 months, so still needs to take action to obtain health insurance from another source.

Getting Your Own Insurance or Obamacare  

The best way to replace a former spouse’s health insurance is through an employer. If a party is already employed at the time of divorce with an employer that offers health insurance, this is an easy fix. But, if no insurance is offered, or the party is unemployed, this becomes a much trickier situation. In this situation, the person may be forced to seek insurance through the health care exchange, which is often expensive and does not offer the best coverage. While this is not the best solution, it does offer temporary coverage until a more sustainable option becomes available.

Get Legal Advice

If you have questions about health insurance after divorce, or other concerns about the repercussions of this event on other areas of your life, you would benefit from speaking with a divorce attorney who has experience working through all these myriad issues. Christopher L. Arrington works with clients in the Indianapolis area and focuses on creating varying strategies to respond to the large array of issues facing divorcing couples. Contact him for a free consultation.