Will Increased Health Insurance Costs Affect You and Your Case?

Were you ordered by the Courts to provide health insurance for your child(ren), if available to you at a reasonable cost?

Would your or your co-parent’s 2026 premium costs be considered reasonable now by the Courts?

Will child support be increased due to the increase in premiums?

What Indiana Guidelines Say

Indiana Child Support Guideline 3(E)(2) states, "The weekly cost of health insurance premiums for the child(ren) should be added to the basic obligation whenever either parent actually incurs the premium expense or a portion of such expense."

Indiana Child Support Guideline 7 states "reasonable cost" is "There is a rebuttable presumption that parents have health insurance available at a reasonable cost. The presumption may be rebutted by demonstrating that the lowest out of pocket cost of insuring the child(ren) is more than 5% of the parents’ combined gross incomes. The lowest out of pocket cost health insurance available may be public insurance."

An example to determine if it would be considered reasonable:

• the combined income of both parents would be $100,000.00

• to determine the 5%, you take $100,000 x 5% = $5,000 a year

• you then divide $5,000.00 / 52 weeks = $96.00 per week

• therefore the weekly premium should be no more than $96.00 per week.

So What Does This Mean?

As most of us have seen, 2026 health insurance premiums have significantly increased. These increases will not only effect the affordability of health insurance but also if you will be able to maintain compliance with a Court's Order. These changes may have some effect on what Courts will consider "reasonable costs" for providing health insurance for your children. Will the Guidelines simply apply or can deviation take place? You may have to ask the Court to modify your Court Order stating you have to provide health insurance for your children, if it is no longer affordable. And it may also effect how child support will be calculated.

The increase in health insurance premiums will likely not only effect the ability to provide health insurance but child support calculations. Modification of child support may be necessary to properly reflect the changes in weekly health insurance premiums, due to the high increases. This could lead to the question, what will be considered unreasonable health insurance premium costs when calculating child support? Should a parent see an increase in child support because their co-parent chose to pay an unreasonable health insurance premium? Should a parent forego good insurance because it could be deemed an unreasonable cost? These are questions that the family law courts have not really had to tackle a lot in the past. The rising cost of health insurance premiums though is something that will be effecting the majority of parents, and children, who have cases in family law courts.

If you have questions about how the increased health insurance costs will affect you and your case or to discuss if modification is necessary, we are here to help. Feel free to call the office to schedule a consultation to discuss your options today!

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