COBRA Availability in Event of Divorce
Firstly, do you know if your employer is bound by state or federal COBRA laws? State, or mini-COBRA, applies to companies with fewer than 20 employees. Not all states have COBRA regulations for small companies in this category. Companies with 20 or more employees are regulated by federal COBRA law, but there are certain types of companies that are exempt. If you work for a business that has fewer than 20 employees, in which state is the group coverage issued? Knowing this will allows us to provide you with mini-COBRA information for that state as they apply to your wife and step-child in a divorce situation. In some states, mini-COBRA is only available to persons that have been insured under the group plan for at least 3 months. 3 CommentsLeave a comment |
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If I divorce and my wife and my step child were covered under my employee health insurance, do my ex wife and step child qualify for COBRA?
Yes, if your employer is subject to either state or federal COBRA laws. If COBRA is available through your group plan, they are considered qualified beneficiaries. In fact, they may be eligible for up to 36 months of coverage under COBRA, depending on the COBRA regulations that apply to your employer. If you can answer a couple of questions, we can provide you with more details.
If the step-child was not adopted by him, that step-child may not qualify for COBRA coverage because he would not be a qualified beneficiary. You should make sure that he understands this.
Comment by Steve — December 5, 2006 @ 5:46 am
Good point Steve, but if this step-child was not his adopted child, he would not have qualified to be included on his group health plan as a dependent.
Comment by admin — December 5, 2006 @ 6:15 am
How do you calculate COBRA premium in the event of a divorce? For arguments sake, let us say that a family of four, husband, wife and two children are on the wife’s family health plan that she receives from her employer. The total premium for that plan is $1000 each month for full family coverage. The company pays $400 and deducts $600 from the wife’s paycheck. So now the husband and wife gets a divorce and she will keep the kids. The husband chooses to go on COBRA so he can stay on an insurance plan. This should then affect the wife’s family health plan, since there is now one person less to insure, meaning a lower premium. How do you then calculate the husbands COBRA premium?
Comment by Edwin — June 11, 2009 @ 12:32 am