Overlooked Divorce Strategies – Health Insurance
With the myriad other things that are happening during a divorce one very critical item may often escape your attention – maintaining your health insurance without any gaps in coverage.
The without any gaps in coverage part of that previous statement merits special attention. Even if part of the divorce settlement includes health insurance payments being made by your spouse, or you plan on getting a different job that includes health insurance benefits, there may well be a gap in your coverage. If your luck is similar to that of many other people, it will be during that gap that you’ll have some unanticipated event that lands you in the local emergency room, costing you a small fortune in uninsured expenses.
If your solution to this is COBRA coverage to tide you over, bear in mind that COBRA coverage itself can be pretty pricey. Your best bet? Make health insurance coverage a conspicuous part of your divorce plan and avoid unpleasant financial surprises.
As always, every situation is unique. This series is intended to “start the thinking process” to take emotive choices out of a hard situation. Everyone’s situation is different, and this is not intended as legal advice. Please, speak to a divorce attorney prior to making any decisions, especially decisions based on a simple blog post. There are many mitigating factors that will go into the final divorce decree.