Child Support NC

[I cry_ in_the_dark]

Ok folks, I'm trying to help out one of my friends here. This is the situation:

Bio mom and dad never married, no longer together. The bio mom's STEP mother has primary custody of child.

At one point in time, the bio mom paid some support, and the bio dad paid some support. The bio dad then lost his job, I do not know why, but the end result is that bio dad no longer pays any support, even though he is capable of working.

Even tho the child was receiving medicaid, court ordered bio mom to obtain health insurance, which she did, through work. As crazy as it is, the health insurance has a $3000.00 yearly deductable.  Why a court would order that insurance vs. medicaid is beyond me. At any rate...

The bio mom is now being sued for the full amount of support. Bio dad is sitting somewhere not paying a dime. Is the court "right" in persuing bio mom for the full amount of child support?

[jenjen]

not sure about carolina but, in florida they can go after one or both parents , although both have a obligation to pay support. My guess is that the state will go after who ever has money and in this case it sounds like the bio mom, leaving the bio mom with the burden of recouping the other half from the father...think of them like a collection agency even though both have there name on the credit card they will go after who is the easiest to collect from or most likely to pay.

[mistoffolees]

>Even tho the child was receiving medicaid, court ordered bio
>mom to obtain health insurance, which she did, through work.
>As crazy as it is, the health insurance has a $3000.00 yearly
>deductable.  Why a court would order that insurance vs.
>medicaid is beyond me.

Because under the law, Medicaid is only for those who can not obtain insurance. If one parent can get insurance at work, applying for Medicaid would be fraudulent.

Yes, the deductible is high, but if they had a lower deductible, the copay would be higher - it tends to come out fairly even in the end, particularly if they also offer flex spending accounts.

[I cry_ in_the_dark]

I understand this.......to a point.

My question being...where's the imputed income from dad? I learned today that he was fired. So he choses not to get another job. If that's the case, I'll fire her tomorrow....not only is my friend, she's my employee. She'd be better off on welfare than what she's left with after paying support.

Don't get me wrong, she already does pay support, and does so willingly. But they're taking her to the cleaners.

[I cry_ in_the_dark]

I appreciate your response, tho, the insurance isn't really the point of my post. And if you truly mean co-pay in your response, there is NO co-pay with this insurance. And by that I mean.....if you are prescribed an 80 dollar prescription, you pay that 80 dollars until the 3 grand is met. Not the greatest of insuance, but good for something major.

And with all due respect, I believe you are off the mark regardless. Let me tell you MY personal account. My children live with their father who makes 35K a year. He is offered insurance through his work. I make more than dad, am single, (and I am offered the same insurance as my employee), and am offered insurance through my work. Dad's wife makes 50K+ a year as an RN and the children could be put on her insurance at a VERY nominal fee, truly less than what it would cost either me or dad on our respective insurances.

My son, 13 who has ADHD, Bipolar, and Depression has been on both Blue Chip through the state of Pennsylvania and is now on ACCESS, which is Welfare insurance in Pennsylvania. My Daughter,16, is still on the Blue Chip, (no medical issues outside of a severe hatred of her home placement).

Domestic Relations does not make either one of us obtain insurance. Both Blue Chip and ACCESS are well aware of what dad makes and step mom makes and I make. Why? Because I was afraid I'd be responsible if there was fraudulent charges made and told them. And NO WAY IN HELL was I going to be accountable for this.

So again, with all due respect...

[Jade]

Why isn't the mother going for custody of her child?  She is the parent here.   The stepmother is not.  

[mistoffolees]

'Co-pay' includes deductibles, so you've got essentially $3 K in deductibles which amounts to the same thing. The point I was making is that many companies have raised their deductibles on health insurance instead of making the employee pay a larger portion of the premium. The argument is that they could raise the deductible to $3 K per year or raise the employee contribution to the premium by $250 per month ($3 K per year). If you use the full amount, then it costs you the same (except that out of pocket medical expenses are deductible). If you don't use the full amount, the employee comes out ahead with the high deductible scheme.

As for the rest, it's sad, but is irrelevant. Medicaid is for people with extremely low income. The plans you're talking about are not Medicaid - and they have different rules. If you have access to other insurance and are filing claims under Medicaid (which is what you claimed in the original post), that's fraud and you could go to jail. Whether you think it's fair is irrelevant. Whether you have high expenses is irrelevant. Whether some completely unrelated plan (ACCESS or Blue Chip) allows it is irrelevant. If you're filing claims under Medicaid when you have access to other insurance, it's wrong. Period.

[I cry_ in_the_dark]

Apparently you can have both. She files with the insurance, which is denied as part of the deductible, and then she sends the denial to medicaid which in turns pays it. So IMHO, it is assinine to make someone who is  low income/medicaid eligible pay a couple hundred dollars a month for insurance which doesn't relieve medicaid of anything, and only makes the low income person even lower income.

And that is what I intended to express in my original post regarding the insurance, expeciailly in light of my own situation. I did not claim that anyone was filing under medicaid fraudulently.

[I cry_ in_the_dark]

I do not know the whole situation involved in her losing her child. All I know is that she was 17 at the time, and that CYS was involved. She's offered nothing more so I've not asked.

She's moved on and now has another happy healthy child. As I stated, she pays child support willingly, but it just seems wrong not to go after dad to pay a portion of it. All I can do is presume that she feels it's in the best interest of the child to remain with her step mom and dad.

[gmad]

Let me preface this by saying I am NOT an attorney or anything near it.
NC has IMHO one of the most aggressive support enforcement systems....especially it seems if you DO try to pay your support.
I do understand that your are not privy to all the particulars so I will try to keep things general as well but understand that the particulars may very well be what makes a difference between one case and another.
If you will look at the dhhs website you will find that support is very structured.
Some of the things that might help you to understand is who exactly is asking for the increase...the custodian or the state... either way your friend is entitled to have her day in court to explain why she shouldnt be paying more.

You can estimate that her portion of support is going to be approximately 30% of her pretax income.  Yes that's right...what she makes before taxes.
They also have to leave her a minimum each month to live on.  At last count that was only about $800 a month. (which isn't squat)
The court also has to take into account that she has to raise another child.  If she receives support for that child or if she has a spouse she only recieves half of the credit.
As to the insurance.... if her income after her support has been paid and taxes taken out would be less than the 800 a month cost of living amount then the insurance would be deemed as unreasonable. Bear in mind the only amount that is looked at is the cost of the "child's" insurance.
The whole catch to this is the system will only take...it doesn't give back.  What I mean by this is after looking at everything if she believes that paying the insurance is cost prohibative or the support is excessive and wants it lowered she is going to have to ask for it...they aren't going to call her up and say...hey I noticed that you don't have enough money after paying support to live off of.. she has to be proactive and that's not easy.