Recently my wife had to have dental work done. It was expensive! No… seriously… expensive. Fortunately, we have dental insurance. Otherwise, that $3,000 we paid out of pocket may have been twice as much. That got me to thinking about the Family Code and the changes that will go into effect in just a few months.
Up until now, the Texas Family Code § 154.008 has required that divorced parents provide only medical insurance for their minor children and that they split the costs of unreimbursed medical expenses. You can’t imagine how many hearings I have had to participate in where the parents argue about whether braces or glasses are medical expenses that need to be reimbursed. Seriously, coming from parents who claimed to be putting their children first, it is depressing.
Starting September 1, 2018, Texas Family Code §§ 154.008, 154.182, 154.183, 154.188, & 154.189 have been modified, and §§ 154.1815, 154.182, 154. 1825 have been enacted to provide that not only medical, but also that dental and orthodontic insurance and other expenses are to be split between the parents.
Additionally, if the case is a Title IV-D case, the Title IV-D agency can administratively adjust the Medical Support Order (154.1827). A Title IV-D case is a child support case handled by the state—often through the Office of the Attorney General in Texas—under federal law to establish, enforce, or modify child support, usually when a parent receives public assistance or requests help with support services.
For those of you whose cases are not Title IV-D, you will need to hire an attorney to modify the child support and medical support provisions of your current divorce decree or child support order. I’m sure prices vary between attorneys, but all it takes is one bill like the one I got this month to easily cover the cost of hiring an attorney to get this language updated for you.
If your child support order or divorce decree doesn’t already include language requiring the obligor to provide medical and dental Insurance and to reimburse for those expenses not covered by insurance, give one of the family law attorneys at Bailey & Galyen a call so we can file for modification on your behalf. It only takes one of these expenses to make it worth it.