Topic 5: Health and Life Insurance
Hi there
In today's political climate the next item, health insurance, is somewhat challenging to consider.
There should be provisions in all agreements, for both health insurance coverage and for how you will handle the uninsured medical expenses for both yourselves and your children.
Generally this is first an economic and a health consideration; Who has the best insurance at the best price? If there are children then the cost of insurance is covered in the child support guidelines. The guidelines provide that the custodial parent pays for the first $250 of uninsured expenses for the children, then the parents share the remainder annually. Generally it is best to spell out what is intended to be covered; medical expenses, dental expenses and counseling expenses, then list what future expenses need to be discussed before they are incurred; there can be a different split of the cost of large ticket items, such as orthodontia as well.
Massachusetts has a provision in its laws that requires health insurance companies with some exceptions to provide post divorce insurance for the spouse of the insured. This is great unless the insured spouse is employed by a company that is a self insurer (Microsoft) or works for the government, in which case the spouse will have to obtain their own insurance. The issue of who pays for this and how the payment is to be characterized, as alimony or not is the subject generally of negotiation, often intense.
Life insurance should be part of any agreement where one there are children or where one side has a support obligation to the other side. The purpose of life insurance in a divorcing family is exactly the same as it would be in an intact one. It is to replace the stream of income that would be lost should one party die, or to fund the obligations to pay in the future that one party has for the benefit of the other or for the benefit of the children. I am not a proponent of whole life insurance and particularly not in a divorce situation where the obligation is limited. If you shop around there is some very reasonable term life insurance available.
You will need to consider: duration, amount , beneficiaries, proof of insurance, how does one party determine that the insurance is in effect, as well as a logical relationship of the insurance to your obligations.
Best,
Nancy
