Father changed children's Health Insurance without telling me

[Maymay1]

What is the name of your state? MO

We have 50/50 custody with no child support paid. 2 teenagers. Custody agreement states we each pay 50% of their medical bills.
I have the kids on Medicaid and pay $150 a month for both of them (there is no deductible or co pay). Father has never paid me a dime for half of their insurance costs. I started keeping a spreadsheet over a year ago to keep track of what he has not paid me.
My children's therapist alerted me about a month ago that their bills were not getting paid to her by Medicaid.
I got a hold of Medicaid and they indicated that is because the kids started private insurance in December 2019 unbeknownst to me. (Father does not communicate to me in any way). Father apparently started them on new private insurance.
I texted Father and asked him why he had done that and his response was that he didn't want to pay me $900 a year in health insurance ($75 his half monthly portion times 12 months).
I was able to find out his deductible per child with his new private insurance is $3000. He now has several medical bills pending to be paid from all of the medical visits I have taken my kids to this year in 2020 (he does not take them to med appointments, only I do). They are well over $1000 at this point.

What do I do now?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? MO

We have 50/50 custody with no child support paid. 2 teenagers. Custody agreement states we each pay 50% of their medical bills.
I have the kids on Medicaid and pay $150 a month for both of them (there is no deductible or co pay). Father has never paid me a dime for half of their insurance costs. I started keeping a spreadsheet over a year ago to keep track of what he has not paid me.
My children's therapist alerted me about a month ago that their bills were not getting paid to her by Medicaid.
I got a hold of Medicaid and they indicated that is because the kids started private insurance in December 2019 unbeknownst to me. (Father does not communicate to me in any way). Father apparently started them on new private insurance.
I texted Father and asked him why he had done that and his response was that he didn't want to pay me $900 a year in health insurance ($75 his half monthly portion times 12 months).
I was able to find out his deductible per child with his new private insurance is $3000. He now has several medical bills pending to be paid from all of the medical visits I have taken my kids to this year in 2020 (he does not take them to med appointments, only I do). They are well over $1000 at this point.

What do I do now?

Take him to court for contempt for not paying his half of the medical bills...and throw in his lack of payment of his half of the insurance up until he put them on the private insurance.

He is kind of an idiot. He didn't want to pay you 900.00 a year towards medical insurance but he has stuck himself with whatever the insurance costs plus at least 1500.00 a year in out of pocket medical expenses.

 

[Ohiogal]

He may have been required to get private insurance as it was available if it was at a reasonable cost. Medicaid is considered only if other insurance is not available. And it can be a secondary to cover the costs not paid by the original insurance. Those are facts.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I agree with OG. Most states require that if private insurance becomes available to a child on Medicaid they must be enrolled.

 

[LdiJ]

I agree with OG. Most states require that if private insurance becomes available to a child on Medicaid they must be enrolled.

I disagree. If the parent getting the medicaid qualifies what often happens is that medicaid becomes secondary insurance and the private insurance becomes primary. Mom is also paying $150.00 a month so its obviously not standard medicaid but some type of subsidized insurance administered through the Medicaid system in that state. $150.00 a month for two children is a pretty high monthly premium for subsidized insurance, as well.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I disagree.

The point being the children likely must be enrolled on private insurance if available.

 

[Ohiogal]

Best part of LD's diatribe is that I said:

He may have been required to get private insurance as it was available if it was at a reasonable cost. Medicaid is considered only if other insurance is not available. And it can be a secondary to cover the costs not paid by the original insurance. Those are facts.

Meaning Medicaid could still be billed as a secondary but the therapist/doctor has to do that. They have to bill primary and then secondary.

 

[LdiJ]

The point being the children likely must be enrolled on private insurance if available.

Yes, I do agree with that. I just don't agree that most states won't let you keep the medicaid as secondary insurance...particularly when you are paying a relatively high premium for it.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

The Medicaid can be kept it just isn't going to pay much and if you are paying $150/month for it it is a loss unless the child has a significant illness.

 

[LdiJ]

The Medicaid can be kept it just isn't going to pay much and if you are paying $150/month for it it is a loss unless the child has a significant illness.

It would cover the deductible and copays. I know people who are on it that way. Since there is a 3000.00 deductible it would save some money.

 

[stealth2]

However, at the end of the day - Dad really should have given OP a head's up.

 

[Junction]

I looked at MO social services online and they do not prohibit having both private insurance and Medicaid, thus, as others have stated, the new insurance would become primary with Medicaid paying the deductible and copays. The OP should be working with Medicaid to determine why they aren't paying. The only couple reasons why they wouldn't pay is if they are mistaken or the OP quit paying the $150 a month and the coverage was dropped.