Medical Insurance through spouse's employer after divorce. (Cobra)

You might be entitled to keep your medical insurance benefits under your former spouse's group plan. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 created what are commonly known as "C.O.B.R.A." benefits, which are available to the former spouses of people who work for employers who have 20 or more employees.

In general this law provides that employers must offer "continuation coverage" for the first three years after the termination of the marriage. The law further provides that the employer can charge the former spouse for this coverage, but the charge cannot be more than 2% greater than what is charged to employees.

After the three years have ended, the law states that the employer must offer a former spouse the right to purchase "conversion coverage", but there are no limits on how much the employer can charge for this coverage.

The C.O.B.R.A law further provides that the former spouse does not have to pass a physical examination in order to obtain the continuation or conversion benefits. This is significant if you have any pre-existing conditions that might not be covered by another medical insurance carrier.

In order to obtain your C.O.B.R.A. benefits you have to file your application with your spouse's employer by no later than sixty (60) days after the termination of your marriage. If you do not file your application by that date you will not be able to ge t these important benefits.

If you wish to have your C.O.B.R.A. benefits you must contact your former spouse's employer directly and request the appropriate forms. This is not a service that is customarily performed by our office. You must contact your former spouse's employer directly if you want to obtain these benefits.

At the current time, the federal government is subsidizing much of the cost of this continuation coverage.

For Smart Divorce in Texas

Diane

Texas Long Term Alimony/Support

THIS POST IS NO LONGER REFLECTS THE LAW AS OF SEPT 2011  SEE POSTS AFTER JULY 2011
Where the marriage has lasted more than 10 years, or under some family violence situations and support is needed to meet the "minimum reasonable needs" of the spouse, the court may order alimony/support for up to three years.  If a spouse is disabled or responsible for a adult disabled child, the support may continue beyond 3 years. Usually what you will see is a three year order with a review at the end.


For Smart Divorce in Texas


Diane

Welcome to Smart Divorce in Texas/ Child Custody Child Preference

Hello there. I am excited about talking to you all about Family Law and other interesting things that come up from time to time.

On my mind of late are some recent changes in the law that I'll be talking about over the course of the next few months.

Affidavits of Preference have been repealed by the Texas legislature. That means that in a custody case no longer will you need to get your child to sign a document to say which parent they want to live with. Judges are mandated to talk to the children if requested. I can see that there are going to be many problems with the implementation of this law, not the least of which is the fact that judges are not trained to have these kind of sensitive and potentially damaging conversations with minors. We will see how it develops and I will be sure to report from the field on how it is working.

For Smart Divorce in Texas,

Diane M. Wanger