Keeping Health Care Coverage Through Your Spouse's Employer

If your health insurance is through a plan offered by your spouses employer, and 20 or more people work for that employer, you can continue the health care coverage after the divorce. Under the federal COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reform Act) law, divorced spouses of employed medical plan participants can pay for their own coverage for up to 36 months after the divorce. The premiums you pay may not exceed coverage for up to 36 months after the divorce. The premiums you pay may not exceed 102% of the plans cost to the employer, but check the costs of other health plans before deciding to continue coverage through your spouses employer. For more information, contact your local office of the federal Department of Labor and ask for a copy of the booklet entitled Continuing Health Care Coverage.

Your spouses employer must inform you of your right to continue the coverage when your divorce becomes final. Dont leave it to your ex-spouse to notify the employer of that date. You should contact your ex-spouses employer (probably the personnel department) and request the continued health care coverage as soon as your divorce is final.

Remember the maximum length of time you can continue the coverage is 36 months which is not very long. As soon as your continued coverage begins, you should start looking for individual coverage, which may be less than the continued group coverage if you are healthy. (Ask if the provider of your continued coverage offers conversion to individual coverage. If it does, study the plan carefully. Individual conversion plans are usually expensive and limited in the benefits given.) Also, if you get a new job that provides group health insurance or you remarry and your spouses employer offers group coverage, your continued coverage will usually be terminated.

Keep in mind that if you dont obtain new insurance before the end of the 36-month period, you risk getting ill and becoming uninsurable.