Medical Insurance

[LeahToTheExtreme]

I live in Arizona and my husband recently went to court to have his supportorders updated because he got a new job so his income changed and hisex-wife also stopped working and went back to school. They went infront of the Judge and all numbers were hashed out and new orders havebeen filed. But during the hearing the Judge questioned why Mom waspreviously ordered to provide medical insurance. She used to have a jobthat had medical whereas my husband did not and then she remarried andher new husband added the children but she is now divorcing husband #2and is unemployed so she went and got state insurance. The Judgeordered my husband to provide medical insurance as his new job offersmedical insurance. So my husband is in the process of adding the kids,however after examining his current Support Orders on the supportworksheet he isn't receiving credit for paying medical insurance and itstates on the current orders that Mom is to provide medical insurance.But on the minute entry for the hearing it says Father is ordered toprovide medical and dental insurance. Assuming this is an error or thathis Orders reflect what was in place as of that day but that issupposed to change, should my husband refile upon getting the medicalinsurance? If he is awarded that credit (on the worksheet that line ismandatory) it would reduce his support by $130. Does the current courtorder supersede the minute entry or vice versa? Thank you for yourinput.

[ocean]

It sounds like he will need to ask for to clarify the order....and get the credit. Child support will go by the court order so whatever that states is what they will take out of his check...
Does it state in the minutes he will get a credit too? or just says he has to pay medical/dental?

[gemini3]

If you went back to court and the existing orders were modified, a new order should have been written and signed by the judge.

If the new orders are different than what was ordered you'll need to go back fro clarification.

[LeahToTheExtreme]

The order does not state he gets a credit for providing medical insurance nor does the minutes state that upon him getting insurance he is to get a credit.

The Judge did a lot of tweaking of the numbers on the calculation, like for instance, he made my husband's income at $9k per month (I WISH!) based on 1 commission check for $30k he received back in November, so the Judge based his number on him making more commissions like that one even though that was a fluke. But he also gave Mom and income even though she is currently in school and not working, but said she could be working and making her same income that she was making before, but he also gave her $200 credit towards child care even though the kids are not in daycare, she picks them up from school but he said since she arranges her schedule to take care of them he will give her the credit. Then he ordered my Husband to get medical insurance, but said it's not a rush since the kids have ACCHS (state insurance) but said he does need to get it eventually. But never said anything about the credit. So in my husband's paperwork he submitted he put his income at his base salary because that is guaranteed and that was the recommendation he got from the clerk whereas Mom felt his income should be based on him making $30k every month and wanted $3k in child support, so the Judge said he came to a compromise by using the above numbers and needless to say my Husband's child support went up $78 per month. Now in actuality he really only makes somewhere around $4,400 a month but ok, maybe he'll get another fat check and it will even out.

Should he leave things as is and just take the hit for the medical? He has to pay $130 per month to add them, although since he added them he went ahead and also added our daughter and myself. And it is $130 regardless of it being just the 2 kids or all 4 of us. But he wouldn't have added any of us if it wasn't for this ruling. However, the Court orders have me a little worried because the X tends to get out of line a lot and we have to revert back to CO often. Truces are very shaky and it states in their Parenting Plan that if they cannot agree then they revert back to CO and follow those. And if the CO says one thing and the minutes say another that isn't good. And if he should refile to change his docs to say Father is to provide medical and try and get the credit for it, how should he go about doing that? Is it the same process as if he was modifying the CO again?

[MixedBag]

IMHO for the medical, what happened to me was that the judge asked "How much does it cost to carry insurance?"  And the answer was $150 per month.  Then he asked "How many people does it cover?"  And the answer was 5.  So I got credit for $30 as my son's expense for insurance.  Then he did the same for Dad and his insurance credit.

It didn't seem to matter that for an individual policy it was $100, and for a family it was an additional $50.  All that gets tricky on what's really relevant and stuff.

I suggest you take the numbers and crunch them into a calculator and THEN see how much the difference really is.

Take out the day-care, put in the medical insurance stuff, keep mom's income imputed, and keep dad's wages as annual from 2008/divided by 12.

Then see where everything stands.

I believe each state in their code also says that the new CS amount must be different by a certain percentage (like 10, 15 or 20% -- or lower or higher, you get the idea).  You need to find out what that percentage is and see if your calculations for the right support amount are THAT different.

For example, when OD emancipated, CS was recalculated for one child left (MD).  Well, since I hadn't asked for an increase in upteen years, NCP actually owed me more for the MD who was left than he had been paying all along for the two girls.  So DHR convinced him to leave well enough alone, otherwise he'd find himself paying more instead of less like he was expecting.