Child support payments are meant to help financially support a child; however, these payments aren’t intended as a catch-all so that the paying parent never has to spend another dime on the child. Many child support orders touch on what must happen if the child needs medical care.
You should review your child support agreement before a medial issue comes up. This will let you know which party should be paying for the health insurance on the child and which party should be paying for the medical expenses that aren’t covered by the insurance.
There are several different ways that uninsured medical expenses are handled in a child support case. In some instances, one parent is assigned the full amount of these expenses. In other cases, the parents will split the expenses by specific percentages that are included in the order.
It is important for you to understand that the payments for uninsured expenses might not cover everything. In order for a parent to be forced to pay, the procedure has to be medically necessary or mutually agreed upon. For example, a bill related to treating seizures would likely be handled according to the support order, but a voluntary nose job wouldn’t be.
If you don’t understand something about how to handle uninsured medical bills and your child support order, take the time to investigate the issue and find out what you need to know. If you don’t have a child support order yet, think about how these bills should be handled and determine if you can include this information in the child support settlement.
Source: FindLaw, “Uninsured Medical Expenses and Child Support,” accessed June 09, 2017