Stepmother providing health insurance

[kandyman]

If my current wife provides health coverage for my children from a prior relationship, can this be used as a precedent for her providing other support for the children?

[ocean]

Depends on the state but generally no. YOU would be court ordered to get health insurance...how you do it, is your business. The court order should not mentioned step-mom.

[kandyman]

Do you know any good sites that I would be able to go to in order to find this information out on a state by state basis?

[ocean]

Some states take into account the spouses income if there are more children born after ...(second family). Then they would take into account wife's income. If the court order states father to have insurance..then you do that however you want. When it come to child support, it is different. Both parents are asked to bring in past taxes...if step mom does not want her info to be given, and no other children are involved, then you can white out her info and bottom line and hand it in. Some people file taxes separate so the spouses income is not involved.

[Kitty C.]

.............on specifics in the CO and/or what agreement can be made between the bio-parents.

In our case (once I was no longer the wicked step-mother to BM and since I carry all medical and dental for our family), she and DH came to an agreement that she would carry primary medical ins., and I would carry secondary medical and primary dental on SS.  The ONLY reason I can't carry primary medical is because of ins. regulations, in that if there is a CO stating who should carry ins., that parent is primary and any other ins. is secondary.  If there is no ins. CO'd, the parent/step-parent who has the ins. who's birthday happens first in a calendar year is primary.  In our case, since BM doesn't have dental, I carry dental on SS.  The birthdate deal is strictly from the insurance industry, not something stipulated by the courts.

So there are 2 factors to consider:  first, if there is an order for ins. and who is supposed to carry it, then whatever the parents can work out between them.

[anera]

NO, those are your kids and your wife, if this is how you choose to provide health coverage than that's up to you and your current family. step mom is not obligated to provide any support for your bio-children and can not be court ordered to do so.