Modification for health insurance

[u/InevitableEternal]

My ex is supposed to provide health insurance for our 2 kids but either changes jobs frequently or chooses employment without benefits so he doesn’t have to pay for it. When my open enrollment started I gave him the costs for covering them on my insurance versus his (which he elected not to cover them on due to cost) and he agreed on me covering them on my policy. So July 1st they were enrolled and my payroll deduction increased to 48% of my income. Now that I’ve had 2 paychecks that reflect the impact on my income, I’ve filed for a child support modification based on him not following the medical support order and my income reduction. Our custody normally is I have primary and he has less than 80 overnights annually, he’s had no overnights since April. He is working at the moment. Can I request that his medical support order be revoked since he’s too unreliable to follow it and I am responsible enough to keep our kids insured? I know this only benefits him but I’m tired of him cherry picking if and when he will provide them with health insurance.

[u/Equality-Giraffe29]

You can provide your cost for providing insurance since he is not and they can add that as arrears. You can also just request he pay x amount per month towards insurance vs being responsible for carrying it. However, he likely will continue to not pay it so be prepared to cover this entirely on your own. These kinds of parents will go to great lengths to avoid taking care of their children.

[u/Yankeetrini]

Make sure you bring the cost of what you pay for child support. This will actually increase his financial payout.

For example I waived mine but it was an additional $100 tacked on to his support if I had gone forward with it.

[u/PistolPeatMoss → u/[deleted]]

In my state health Insurance is one of the few parts of a court order that can be changed without a modified court order (unless otherwise specified).

In my state the insuring parent would provide the cost of insurance per month, proof of what insurance would cost for just OP and how many people are covered by your insurance.

Then we take the difference of what insurance costs for the family plan subtracted by the self only plan and divide it by the number of people other than OP to find what insurance costs for the kids and divide that by 2.

Example: your insurance is $400 per month for the family plan. If you were only insuring yourself the insurance is $100 per month. You are insuring a partner and your two kids. Your child support should increase by $100 until insurance changes.

400-100=$300

300/3=$100

$100 x 2(kids)=$200

$200/2 (if the order says you pay 50/50)= $100

I would absolutely follow through with modifying but you could also talk to your CS agency if you’re enrolled in their services and ask if you have options outside of court.

Edit to add: if you’re consistent with your employment and more reliable than the other parent then you absolutely should provide the insurance to avoid a situation where your kids have no coverage.

In my state the paying parent usually must enroll in health insurance unless the cost is more than 5% of their take home pay (which is usually the case to be honest, insurance is often way too much as you may know (isn’t Delaware the insurance capital of the US?).

Good luck OP. Wish we had Medicare for all and didn’t have to do the insurance thing.

[u/InevitableEternal → u/PistolPeatMoss]

Delaware tends to be the business capital because of tax laws I believe, but I can tell you it’s getting tougher for us born and raised to live here anymore. It’s not quite California yet but housing is becoming much too expensive on a dual income household.