No, if The Cost Is More than 5% Of Your Income
Video Transcribed: In a custody case, can I be ordered to pay for health insurance for the child that I cannot afford? I’m Oklahoma Lawyer James Wirth. That’s the question that we’ve got before us today. It’s part of the series that we’re doing on Oklahoma child support guidelines, and a lot of these answers can be revealed from Oklahoma statute, and that is also the case here.
We’re dealing with Title 43, Section 118 F regarding the requirement that the court order that health insurance is obtained for the minor child or minor children, but there are exceptions to that, and one is regarding the reasonableness in cost.
So, the obligor cannot be ordered to pay a pro-rata share for health insurance, if their pro-rata share is more than 5% of their income. But that’s not for the total premium, that’s got to be for the portion of the premium attributable to the kids in the order.
So a lot of times we have these types of cases, we have to determine, okay, we’ve got a premium of this amount, but part of that premium goes towards coverage of the parents or one of the parents. And part of that coverage goes to the kids, maybe some kids that are not part of this custody case.
So you have to look at the difference between the premium cost if it’s just the adults and the adults and the kids and determine how it’s attributable to the kids and then you have to divide that amount among the number of kids included in the order, and then multiply that, or a number of kids included in the health insurance, and then multiply that by the number of kids that are included in the order, to determine the cost per children that are in the order.
If that premium cost is more than 5% of your income, then that is not a reasonable cost and the court cannot order you to pay or obtain that health insurance.
So, can you be ordered to buy health insurance and obtain health insurance for your children? Yes. The law does require that the court do that, but can you be ordered to get unaffordable insurance? No. It cannot exceed 5% of your income.
If you’ve got questions about health insurance, and orders related to kids in custody cases in Oklahoma, that’s what we’re talking about here. If you need to speak to a Tulsa family law attorney or a Tulsa Child Support Collection Attorney please visit makelaweasy.com
