Please clarify this passage from my separation agreement:
- Health Insurance Continuation. Husband currently carries Wife on a health insurance policy with Aetna. Husband agrees to carry Wife on this policy as long as he is employed.
My husband is now employed with a different company and I am on that health insurance policy. And he is about to change to another company for employment meaning a different health insurance policy again.
Does the above paragraph mean that he must carry me on his health insurance as long as he is employed? Regardless of our marital status? He intends to file for divorce soon and I need to know whether he must continue to cover me.
I do not believe you can be covered under his health plan once you are divorced because you no longer fulfill ‘spouse’ or ‘family’ status. You also understand that with each job change (UNLESS HE HAD COBRA), there was probably a 3 month period where you were not covered. Keep that in mind. I found out the HARD way in my case. One of my children needed medical care and we were not covered due to a job change. My husband thought ‘we’d be OK’ for that 3 months. We were not.
Now, whether he provides funds for a policy FOR you as a part of the agreement is another story. You need to be careful here.
Though the agreement does not spell it out, the obligation your husband has to cover you can only last for so long as you are married. After divorce he cannot cover you, unless it is through COBRA. If the agreement does not require that he cover you via COBRA his obligation will end at the time the divorce is granted.
One way to deal with this issue is to make the cost of a health insurance premium part of alimony if you are eligible to receive alimony. Also, the insurance company may be willing to “work with you” in that you pay the same rate your ex husband was paying. For the record, my attorney promised to address the issue of health insurance and include it in the alimony request. Nope, he did not. I am responsible for my own health care insurance. Seems to be just the way it is once divorced. The “same standard” of living is a crock.