Don’t Forget COBRA in Your Tennessee Divorce

When you’re divorce is pending in Fayette County, Tennessee, find out how COBRA may directly affect your family’s health insurance coverage after the final decree. If you or your spouse work for an employer with 20 or more workers, then that employer is subject to COBRA laws.

That’s COBRA, Not Cobra

COBRA and Health Insurance Options | Divorces in Fayette County, Tennessee

You may be wondering about the significance of reptiles to continuing health insurance coverage. Well, it’s not because bites from Tennessee’s venomous snakes require medical attention, which they often do. The law that we’re referring to was passed in 1986 as the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act known by the acronym COBRA.

An insurance policy through a spouse’s employer is typically negotiated as a group plan for similarly situated workers. Because the risk is pooled among many employees at the company, the cost is often less than what it would be to go out and purchase an individual health care or dental policy. COBRA not only helps with insurance continuity, it can save money after the divorce.

Discuss COBRA Rights with Your TN Divorce Attorney

Be prepared to discuss COBRA and any dependents’ rights to health insurance coverage with your divorce lawyer. It’s important that you understand how you or your children will be insured once the divorce or legal separation is complete. Remember, COBRA will not always be a factor with dependents’ coverage:

• On the one hand, if COBRA is applicable to insurance coverage after the divorce, then it is a point for serious discussion during divorce negotiations with the other party. Many COBRA coverage premiums can be exceptionally expensive. Learn the cost of COBRA premiums as soon as possible and compare it to the cost of a comparable new private insurance premium.
• On the other hand, if COBRA rights are not available because neither spouse’s employer is subject to COBRA, then a different discussion must take place. How will insurance for the children be paid? Should alimony for a spouse include a specified amount to provide for health insurance premiums? These are questions to be answered through divorce negotiations, too, if at all possible.

Asserting COBRA Rights to Stay on the Health Insurance Policy

COBRA allows dependents to continue under the employee-insured’s policy following a “qualifying event.” One of those qualifying events is a Tennessee divorce.

The wife, the husband, or both may be primary insureds under an employer group health care plan. Do not assume that it is only the husband’s coverage that may be continued for a dependent wife under COBRA after the divorce. Quite possibly, both spouses’ employers are subject to COBRA provisions, giving the parties an opportunity to choose the better policy given their objectives. (That would be another discussion to share with your divorce attorney.)

Under COBRA, if premiums are paid plus a small administrative fee, the dependent-spouse and the minor children may stay on the employee-spouse’s insurance policy for a full 18 months.

COBRA allows coverage to continue for a minimum period of 18 months, but that may be increased to 36 months when certain conditions are met. If you plan to take advantage of COBRA, understand that it is not a permanent solution to your health care insurance needs. At some point, you will need to replace it with a separate policy or find some other solution. (We’ll leave the Affordable Care Act of 2010 and its impact on insurance coverage for former spouses and dependents for another day.)

For insurance coverage to continue, someone must pay the COBRA premiums for the beneficiaries after the divorce. Which makes the amount of the premium to be paid, and who will be responsible for paying it, another aspect of divorce negotiations. Assume, for example, that the husband is the employee-insured and that all other COBRA eligibility factors are satisfied. After the divorce, the former wife has the right to continue under her ex’s insurance through his employer. Unless the parties agree otherwise, generally she alone would be responsible for paying the insurance premiums for her coverage.

60 Days to Notify Employer After the Qualifying Event

Carrying out the application for coverage under COBRA is a responsibility that must be completed without delay. Assuming the employer properly notified both parties of their COBRA rights, there’s only a 60-day period within which to notify that employer of an assertion of such rights.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to follow up with COBRA so that insurance for dependents continues following the final decree. To learn more about what COBRA means to your divorce or legal separation, continue reading COBRA in Tennessee Divorce | Continuing Health Insurance Coverage Laws.

COBRA News From a Memphis Divorce Attorney

The Miles Mason Family Law Group handles Tennessee divorce, child support, alimony, child custody, and parent relocation. For legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary on COBRA and other divorce issues, visit our Tennessee Family Law Blog. You can also download our free e-Book, Your First Steps: 7 Steps Planning Your Tennessee Divorce. A Memphis divorce lawyer from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help. To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.