Health Insurance

Direct payment of a former spouse’s health insurance normally is not part of an alimony agreement or order, although the recipient certainly may wish to use some of the alimony payments to purchase health insurance if the recipient is not already covered.

When a couple divorces, the health insurance policy covering the family (if there was such a policy) no longer covers both spouses. The policy only covers the spouse who had insurance through work or through an individual policy. Children who were covered under a family policy generally are still covered under the policy after a divorce.

A federal law passed in the 1980s (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, also known as “COBRA”) requires most employer-sponsored group health plans to offer divorced spouses of covered workers continued coverage at group rates for eighteen months (and up to thirty-six months in some circumstances) after the divorce. The divorced spouse of a worker must pay for the coverage, but the coverage is available.

A divorced spouse who wishes to take advantage of this law should act as soon as the divorce is final or the coverage has been lost. He or she should contact the covered worker’s employer (Human Relations or Personnel Department) to learn the steps that must be taken, but generally the notification has to be within sixty days of the divorce or loss of coverage. Continued coverage is not automatic. The law provides that the worker’s employer must explain the divorced spouse’s right to continue coverage within fourteen days of being notified, after which the spouse has no more than sixty days to choose to continue the coverage. The employer will advise what coverage is available, its cost, and when payments must be made, as well as any steps that must be taken to establish eligibility for the health insurance.