sparkleguitargr
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? IOWA.
I hope this is the right place to ask this. I have a couple of questions on behalf of my boyfriend. He was never married to the girl that he has a 6 year old daughter with but when his daughter was born, there was a legal custody agreement drawn up. His ex has physical custody of his daughter and they have no visitation or other custody agreement. In this agreement, his ex pays $100 per year of his daughter's medical expenses and he pays the rest and must carry health insurance if it is offered by his employer.
My boyfriend's employer offers health insurance and it is $110 a month for himself and his daughter and he has been carrying it for two years. (This is a part-time job and he also works full-time for his family's business.) Because of numerous doctor visits and having new tubes put in her ears, his daughter has incurred over $10,000 in doctor bills. Our insurance apparently is only covering about $900.00 of this and they have told us that his benefits are "maxed out." Between his child support payments, insurance costs, and the total for her medical so far this year, he is paying out much more than he typically makes each year. At the time that the agreement was drawn up, his ex was unemployed and had "no income" and he was working full-time at a fairly well-paying job. After 5 years of not working, his ex now has a full-time job (on contract, through the school district) and she makes substantially more money than my boyfriend does.
My boyfriend has made no attempt to change his child support because his parents have convinced him that if he tries to have it lowered, he will end up having to pay more. The support is not the major issue, the amount of medical expenses he is responsible for is. His insurance doesn't cover much but costs him more than what they have agreed to pay! His ex has available to her Blue Cross insurance but she refuses to carry any insurance for her daughter, even if we agree to pay for it. In Iowa we have something called Hawk-I (AND Title 19, neither of which he can carry for his daughter, her mother has to carry it if she wants it) which she also qualifies for because she is still considered lower income and she refuses to carry either of these, too. Basically she has told us that she doesn't care how much my boyfriend has to pay, it is his problem.
Sorry to be so long-winded but my question is, because of the changes in financial circumstances, does it seem probable that my boyfriend might be able to have the medical expenses agreement changed to provide something that would work better for both him and his ex and his child? Something like either she is responsible for more of the expenses or has to also carry insurance or something? We are trying to figure out if it would be beneficial for us to take the matter to court or not.
My boyfriend's parents are so upset about the amount of money that we have just realized he is going to be paying this year in medical expenses (his father manages our money for us) and that his ex refuses to carry insurance for his daughter, too, that they want him to threaten her with quitting both of his jobs and giving up his parental rights if she does not agree to carry some kind of better insurance (and let US pay for it.) While I am strongly against this idea, I would like to know what the laws are on this sort of thing so that I can tell his parents that just because he might sign away his rights does not release him from obligation for child support or medical expenses (as far as I know.) I don't think threatening her would work anyway but they seem to think that if she thinks she is no longer going to recieve money from my boyfriend for child support, that she will give in and do what they want. I think that we should just go ahead and take the matter to court and not only try to have the medical expense agreement changed but try to establish joint custody so that we actually might get to see his daughter. I am hoping to get some real advice to take to his parents about the matter before things get out of hand. Thanks so much for your help!
I hope this is the right place to ask this. I have a couple of questions on behalf of my boyfriend. He was never married to the girl that he has a 6 year old daughter with but when his daughter was born, there was a legal custody agreement drawn up. His ex has physical custody of his daughter and they have no visitation or other custody agreement. In this agreement, his ex pays $100 per year of his daughter's medical expenses and he pays the rest and must carry health insurance if it is offered by his employer.
My boyfriend's employer offers health insurance and it is $110 a month for himself and his daughter and he has been carrying it for two years. (This is a part-time job and he also works full-time for his family's business.) Because of numerous doctor visits and having new tubes put in her ears, his daughter has incurred over $10,000 in doctor bills. Our insurance apparently is only covering about $900.00 of this and they have told us that his benefits are "maxed out." Between his child support payments, insurance costs, and the total for her medical so far this year, he is paying out much more than he typically makes each year. At the time that the agreement was drawn up, his ex was unemployed and had "no income" and he was working full-time at a fairly well-paying job. After 5 years of not working, his ex now has a full-time job (on contract, through the school district) and she makes substantially more money than my boyfriend does.
My boyfriend has made no attempt to change his child support because his parents have convinced him that if he tries to have it lowered, he will end up having to pay more. The support is not the major issue, the amount of medical expenses he is responsible for is. His insurance doesn't cover much but costs him more than what they have agreed to pay! His ex has available to her Blue Cross insurance but she refuses to carry any insurance for her daughter, even if we agree to pay for it. In Iowa we have something called Hawk-I (AND Title 19, neither of which he can carry for his daughter, her mother has to carry it if she wants it) which she also qualifies for because she is still considered lower income and she refuses to carry either of these, too. Basically she has told us that she doesn't care how much my boyfriend has to pay, it is his problem.
Sorry to be so long-winded but my question is, because of the changes in financial circumstances, does it seem probable that my boyfriend might be able to have the medical expenses agreement changed to provide something that would work better for both him and his ex and his child? Something like either she is responsible for more of the expenses or has to also carry insurance or something? We are trying to figure out if it would be beneficial for us to take the matter to court or not.
My boyfriend's parents are so upset about the amount of money that we have just realized he is going to be paying this year in medical expenses (his father manages our money for us) and that his ex refuses to carry insurance for his daughter, too, that they want him to threaten her with quitting both of his jobs and giving up his parental rights if she does not agree to carry some kind of better insurance (and let US pay for it.) While I am strongly against this idea, I would like to know what the laws are on this sort of thing so that I can tell his parents that just because he might sign away his rights does not release him from obligation for child support or medical expenses (as far as I know.) I don't think threatening her would work anyway but they seem to think that if she thinks she is no longer going to recieve money from my boyfriend for child support, that she will give in and do what they want. I think that we should just go ahead and take the matter to court and not only try to have the medical expense agreement changed but try to establish joint custody so that we actually might get to see his daughter. I am hoping to get some real advice to take to his parents about the matter before things get out of hand. Thanks so much for your help!