If you take a closer look at the California child support orders, you can usually note that they have the cost of health insurance factored into the child support number’s guideline. While most people are aware of the fact that the health insurance cost has been factored into this guideline, the reason for this action is still unclear on most people. In this blog, we are going to talk about how the Orange County family law courts consider the health insurance coverage in the child support order.
Before we talk about this aspect however, let’s take a look at what health insurance actually is. Health insurance in reality is when your medical costs are covered by an insurance that is paid for by deducting a certain amount from your monthly or yearly pay.
If either of the spouses has a health insurance coverage, the courts are likely to order that parent to continue with that health insurance coverage as long as that insurance is available to the child at no cost or at a very low/reasonable cost. It is important at this point to identify that health insurance is likely to cover not only hospital costs but also costs that are incurred on vision and dental care. Health insurance is often needed to be maintained and the most common way of doing so is by getting an amount deducted from the gross pay that is ordered in addition to the California child support number.
As far as the effect of this order is concerned, it can be termed as one that is equal in its importance to that of a child support order. The family law court has the power to, in case of non compliance of this order, to punish the non-compliant spouse. The fact that child health insurance factor is added in the child support order means that the addition of the health insurance cost coverage of the child will reduce the amount of child support that such a parent would have to pay.
It is important to be able to distinguish the uninsured medical costs from the insured medical cost coverage. It is also worth noting that in case one parent is spending on the costs of the child’s medical care, even though the child has insurance coverage, that spouse is unlikely to receive any kind of reimbursement against those costs. In some circumstances however, the courts can take into account the situation of the case and are likely to award the other spouse to pay the paying parent a reimbursement of 50% of their amount.
Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.
