What happens to my health insurance after a divorce in New York?
Your spouse’s employer plan will drop you when the divorce is final; it cannot keep covering a former spouse. You then have two routes, both on a clock. You can continue the same plan under COBRA (or New York’s continuation law for smaller employers) for up to 36 months, paying the full premium yourself, if you tell the plan within 60 days. Or divorce counts as a qualifying event for NY State of Health, so you can enrol in a Marketplace plan, with any subsidy your new single income qualifies for, within 60 days. The children are different: they stay on a parent’s plan, and the separation agreement says which parent carries them and how the premium is shared.
The choices, and the deadlines
The mistake is waiting. Both options close 60 days after the divorce is final.
- Continuing the old plan. COBRA applies to employers with 20 or more employees; New York’s continuation law covers smaller insured plans. Either way, divorce entitles the former spouse to up to 36 months on the same plan at up to 102% of the full premium. Notify the plan within 60 days of the judgment.
- NY State of Health. Losing coverage through divorce opens a special enrolment period of 60 days. Premium tax credits are based on your own household income after the divorce, which for many people is lower than during the marriage.
- Medicaid and Essential Plan. If post-divorce income is low, the Marketplace routes you to Medicaid or the Essential Plan instead of a subsidised private plan.
- The children. Both parents can be ordered to provide health coverage for the children, and the agreement should name the plan, the parent who carries it, how the premium for the children’s share is split, and how unreimbursed costs are divided. Child support add-ons cover this by income share.
- Timing. Some couples deliberately file once the lower-earning spouse has coverage lined up, or sign a separation agreement first and delay the judgment; both are legitimate reasons to sequence the divorce.
COBRA: 29 U.S.C. §1161 et seq.; New York Insurance Law §3221(m) and §4305(e) (continuation). NY State of Health special enrolment periods. Child support add-ons: Domestic Relations Law §240(1-b)(c)(5).