If you are going through a divorce, you may be wondering how you will handle uninsured medical expenses for your kids after the divorce. This makes sense because standard medical insurance has its limits and caveats that mean people always have to chip into their pockets when getting treatment. Here are some of the ways in which different states handle the issue.

Using the Income Shares Model

In some states, you will be required to share the uninsured medical expenses using the ratio of your respective incomes. Consider an example where you have an income of $100,000, and the other parent has an income of $50,000. In this case, you earn twice as much as the other parent, which means you will be required to pay twice as much uninsured medical expenses as them. 

Therefore, if your child incurs uninsured medical expenses of $3,000, you have to pay $2,000 while the other parent pays $1,000. Note that the income used in this calculation is the income used when calculating child support, which means it may include your employment benefits, inheritance, and even lottery winnings.

Basing It on the Original Child Support

In some jurisdictions, the custodial parent will be required to pay the uninsured medical expenses as long as they don't exceed a certain percentage of the child support amount. For example, the custodial parent may be expected to foot the bills as long as they don't exceed half of the child support amount, after which both parents are expected to share them. So, if the child support is $1,000 every month, and the limit is 50%, the parents will only share the uninsured medical expenses if they exceed $500 within the month.

Basing It on a Pre-Determined Dollar Amount

There are also states that base the uninsured medical expenses on a predetermined dollar amount, and the parents are only required to share the expenses if they exceed this limit. For example, the custodial parent may be required to foot the bills as long as they don't exceed $500, and only share any amounts above that with the other parent.

Sharing the Unpredictable Costs

It is possible for a child to have both predictable and unpredictable uninsured medical reports. In such a case, some jurisdictions will require you to share only the unpredictable expenses while the custodial parent pays the predictable ones. In such a case, the rationale is that the predictable expenses have already been handled by the child support determination.

For more information, check out a website like http://www.siouxlandlaw.com.

Share