Today, we’re going to be talking about health insurance after your West Virginia divorce is finalized. One of the more common questions I get is whether a spouse can be on a soon to be former spouse’s health insurance? The answer to that is generally no. It typically comes down to whether the current health insurance plan you have allows it. It may be possible for you to stay on your soon to be spouse’s policy, but it’s not something that routinely happens. Most likely, you’re going to be responsible for your own health insurance premiums after the divorce. That’s actually one of the reasons why some people actually choose not to get a divorce.
For example, in West Virginia, we have what’s known as separate maintenance. This is sort of the equivalent of a legal separation. The court can make all the decisions, whether it’s children, child custody, dividing property, alimony and all of that. It’s far cheaper for the people to remain married and have a legal separation, so some people choose to do that.
Sometimes, the health insurance can be actually part of the alimony claim they will say in court. You or your soon to be ex may need a certain part of the alimony amount be paid so they or you can have your own health insurance. Both people in the West Virginia divorce process need to be thinking about how both people are going to have health insurance going forward into the future. The right attorney should be able to help with something like that. When it comes to children, oftentimes it’s very easy to include them on one of the parents’ health insurance premiums. Let’s say that two people are getting divorced and the children need to be included on health insurance. That is usually not an issue.
You can actually include the children on your health insurance without including your former spouse. Usually the courts will order this to happen as long as it’s available at a reasonable cost. If it’s not going to be at a reasonable cost, the courts generally are not going to make you maintain the children on the health insurance plan you have. Let’s say it’s an extra 50 bucks a month or 100 bucks a month, then in that instance, it’s a little bit more likely that the court is going to order that the children be included on your health insurance. Just remember, it’s important to explore your options and make sure you and your children are covered by health insurance during the process and after your West Virginia divorce is finalized.
