Health insurance for ex-spouse

Massachusetts has universal health insurance. In a divorce, this means that the judge will look for ways to provide health insurance for the entire family at the lowest cost. If there are children of the marriage, the likely result is a family health insurance policy that covers the entire family including the ex-spouse. In Massachusetts, an ex-spouse is treated as a current spouse for health insurance as long as neither spouse has remarried. People frequently think that the obligation to insure the ex-spouse means that a new spouse will be uninsured. This is not correct. Once one of the parties has remarried, the ex-spouse is not eligible for insurance coverage under the family health insurance policy. Of course, before any decisions are made about insurance coverage, the divorce decree and agreement need to be carefully reviewed.