Insurance - Odessa,TX

Maybe it's time for file for child support or alimony. He didn't keep his end of the bargain. Also, try to set aside money for medical for you. Good luck to you!!

Your post does not say how long ago he moved out. In Texas, common law marriage is recognized and if your relationship met the state's criteria for common law, than it would require a formal dissolution of marriage, just like a divorce. It doesn't sound like you went through this process. As far as the health insurance, whether or not you continued to meet his health plan's criteria for eligible spouse after he moved out needs to be considered. You and he can't just decide to keep paying the premium if you don't meet the health plan's criteria - which may have required that you be living together. If it simply required that you be his "legal spouse" and you met the common law criteria, and you have not dissolved the common law marriage yet, then you would likely be (depending upon the size of the employer) eligible for COBRA coverage. Because he lost his job, COBRA would be available for 18 months. If you accept and pay for COBRA, and dissolve your common law marriage during the COBRA period, you would be eligible for the health coverage for 36 months. You really need to see an attorney. If you try to take individual health insurance, when (if) you had COBRA available or if you truly weren't eligible for the coverage when the two of you decided to leave you on his plan and now aren't eligible for COBRA, you may be refused for individual coverage or may have a pre-ex limitation applied to you. Please talk to an attorney and get this straightened out. By the way, from his standpoint, he just can't move on to the next woman, call her his common law spouse and put her on his health plan if he never dissolved his common law marriage to you. Good luck!

For your sake and your daughters sake.....get something legally done! I know you think you were trying to be nicey nice about the whole seperation but you are only seeing a glimpse of what the future may hold. Protect yourself and your daughter. Who cares if he gets upset!

Good luck,
DH

Hello D., I would go ahead and contact an attorney. Get something in writing for him to pay child support along with covering your daughter on insurance. Also, if you can prove common law marriage for the 13 years (this can be difficult in Texas) he may also be responsible for alimony to you because of the length of time you were married. By doing this it would ease up your expenses and you could afford to pay for your own health insurance. He has already gone back on his word and it will happen again unfortunately. I do think it's very important to get along and hope you guys can continue to do so. I'm glad your doing ok now and wish you nothing but the best.

I'd file for child support and have insurance court ordered so that he can't change his mind again. I don't know Texas law re: common law marriages. In AZ and OR the husband cannot continue having the wife covered on company paid insurance once they're divorced. My ex paid me so that I could obtain insurance. So it's possible that you could get the money for insurance with court ordered alimony.

Are you sure he was fired? I've heard of men saying such things in order to get out of paying. Since the agreement was just between he two of you there is no way you could enforce it anyway and so it's likely he's telling the truth. Depends on how "smart" he is.

He can probably file for COBRA which would continue the insurance he has now for all 3 of you.

I would talk with an attorney before making any decisions.

Even if he lost his job and benefits, he can pay for individual policies for you and your daughter. Don't feel sorry for him and don't let him get away with it. He needs to do what he needs to to support you and his child. go to the county courthouse and see what papers you need to file. You can do it on your own. Good luck!!!

you can go online and get quotes from reputable insurance companies.
BTW, file papers for child support. If the insurance issue has changed , so will everything else.

First, FILE FOR CHILD SUPPORT. I found out the hard way that this is not the time to be nice. When you're nice is when you get screwed - to put it nicely. Your first concern is taking care of your daughter not being friends with him and making things easy for him. Once child support is ordered per the law whether working or not he is suppose to pay child support (it will vary on income level and will adjust when he gets a job or visa versa, Usually the AGs office tracks all of this and he has to report income to them. Takes you out of the middle) and if he's not carrying insurance and you are then he is to pay at least your daughter's part of the insurance. If he's already changed the agreement once I wouldn't put it past him to change it again. Second get insurance for yourself and daughter. There are a lot of individual policies out there especially if yall are pretty healthy. I've been looking at tons and for family basics, checkups and ER plus a little more runs abt $200 to $350. I haven't checked Scott&White yet but heard they are really inexpensive but you have to go to their doctors. I've only hesitated bc none of our drs are S&W drs so we would have to change. But I was told that if you go to their dr and have the S&W insurance then you don't pay anything other than your monthly. I have a friend at Capital City here in Austin and had him pull price quotes from BCBS, Aetna, Humana & I think there was one other and they were all pretty close to the same policy. The deductibles just varied and changed the monthly. The higher the deductible the lower the monthly. If no major health issues better to go with higher deductible bc u aren't as likely to use it and it's much cheaper monthly. You can also call the insurance companies yourself and have them send you a few options of plans then compare before you make your decision. Sorry if I'm repeating. Good Luck

im not sure how it is in tx. but in tn we have tenncare and with you being a single mom you should be elgible for your states healthcare depending on the income as well. We also have covertn for people whos work dont offer health insurance and you make to much for the tenncare. Call your dhs office in your county or call your local health dept. and see what your state offers. I would def. be filing child support as well. and with him being the father he has to supply the health insurance any ways so dont worry about him dropping your daughter off his health insurance and file for that child support.

You have good advice already to get him to support you and your daughter. That is his responsibility. Just want to make sure you know that individual insurance is available. Don't let him tell you he can't get insurance because he has no job. I use a broker and I can give you his name if you want someone else to do the leg work and pull up numbers for you.

Here is my 2 cents, if I were you I'd give him a chance to find a job and hold up his end of the deal before going to file child support. You can't get blood from a stone and if he's not working, he probably can't afford Cobra or an individual policy. With that said there are plenty of options in finding an individual policy for yourself and your daughter in the meantime. I had an individual policy for myself and my son for a while when m,y job didn't offer insurance (small business). I would suggest checking out BCBS of TX, United Healthcare, Humana, Aetna, Cigna and any other major carrier and checking their web sites for information on individual policies. You also can do a search for health insurance. There are tons of sites out there for individual policies even cheaper than some of the major carriers.

You may also want to check if you or your daughter are eligible for Medicaid or any state assistance.

Good luck!

Just wondering how long you have been divorced from him. That makes a difference as to whether you are entitled to insurance for YOURSELF. I totally understand the coverage for your daughter. The best thing to do is to file for child support legally. This way, no one gets shafted. They will keep track of how much he has paid, and it can go through an agency -- so there is no here say (which doesn't get taken seriously in court). He is legally obligated to provide support for his child, but I don't know about the law for spousal support. I think you are entitled to some support (10 years or more of marriage). However, I don't know if you are entitled to support/insurance coverage indefinitely. I would think there would be a limit, and a time period to allow you to get back on your feet. Otherwise, women could take advantage of a man by marrying him just to get the money and then move on. NOT saying this is what you are doing (I ALREADY KNOW I'll probably get some flack about this, because I got chastised by a bunch of scorned women on here in the past for my post about dental coverage for my step-daughter). I would go through a lawyer. That's the best way to make it fair for everyone. When people don't go through the law, manipulation can happen on either end: with the man OR the woman. Good luck. Your daughter deserves to have support, for sure.

I think it is great that you are trying to work together and be amicable towards one another. If there is already another woman in the picture and she is already making waves, you may want to reconsider your agreement. I just want to make several points regarding your situation.

1. If you were considered Common-law married, you will need to file for divorce.
2. If you do qualify for and genuinely need state assistance, you will have to file for child support. If you don't, it is likely you won't qualify for services or they will file for you. Today, all court-ordered CS goes through the State AG's office.
3. If I were you, I would have a legal agreement for C/S, insurance, visitation, etc. drawn up. Good intentions can go bad very quickly, especially when there is another party involved.
4. Unless he lists you as a dependent (spouse, child, etc.) he will not be able to carry you on a new policy.

Sounds like it is time to remind him of the agreement, no child support if you were both carried on insurance and support of child. Let him know that there are lawyers out there that would love this case. New girl friend needs to butt out this was like a marriage and she was not and is not part of it now.