health care plan

I am divorced since 2010, during negotiations for settlement ex spouses solicitor confirmed in writing at my request he would continue to pay for my cover on a private family healthcare plan. he paid for this via his company. this matter was not raised in the final hearing or subject of any order. It transpires he has subsequently cancelled my cover ( did not tell me) but continued it for himself and the children. I cannot afford to take out a new policy and suspect as this was a long standing insurance I would have to pay more due to my age. This was a real spiteful act cancelling my insurance without telling me but is there anything I can do about this??? ....he is not paying spousal maintenance or the lump sum he was ordered to pay either so I will probably be heading back to court anyway but can''t afford a solicitor so will be representing myself and so need all the help I can get ....thanks.

As a frequent visitor to the United States, which, as members of this forum who know me will be well aware, healthcare over there is a subject on which I have some old fashioned views.

I had to come home because my medication had run out, and to get some more, I would have had to get a doctor to write one out for me, and it was 2 weeks before I could get an appointment and they would charge $250 just for writing out a prescription. What I was supposed to do in the interim, they didn''t say.

I''m sure that $250 was mostly towards their insurance premium , as for the last two weeks my ears have been assailed by wall to wall advertising by lawyers on TV that YOU CAN GET COMPENSATION . Anyway, enough of rant.

From what you tell me, reading between the lines, I get the impression that you already have an order. So I suppose the first question is, did your spousal maintenance include an element that would have enabled you to take advantage of the healthcare plan ? Did you include this as an income need in your form E ?

Sounds to me like your first priority has to be to get him to pay what the Court actually ordered him to pay. But if the order doesn''t include a specific payment towards healthcare costs, I fear you may be too late.

LMM

Might also be worth considering that if he pays this as a scheme through his employer which they run as an employee benefit they may no longer allow you to be covered.

I can pay extra to cover spouse and dependant children but not an ex-spouse.

thanks for your reply. the health care plan was not included in my expenses ( as it was paid via his company) nor in the order, i thought it sufficient to obtain written confirmation from his solicitor. . it was a benefit i had received for the 20 years of marriage, and whilst he continues to enjoy this I am now excluded . it is really disappointing that there is no comeback for this type of behaviour, it would appear to be a loophole for the unscrupulous to agree to certain terms prior to the hearing allowing them to change their mind after the hearing without the prospect of enforcement . so I suppose the lesson here is to ensure everything is included on the order.

thanks for your post. yes it is a possibility the insurance company won''t allow this and I wrote to the company during divorce proceedings back in 2010 to ask about eligibility and a new policy in my own name... they didn''t respond and i didn''t pursue it as i had received confirmation from his solicitor at this point...it is his own company and he and my children are the only beneficiaries of the policy so he would have been made aware of any changes... i think as a minimum the decent thing to do would have been to tell me my cover had been cancelled if that was the case so i had the opportunity to maintain continuity of cover.