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COBRA and California bifurcated divorce (partial dissolution of marriage)


Guest byuen

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Guest byuen

An employee is requesting information on the COBRA implications of her entry into a partial dissolution of marriage (or "bifurcated divorce") under California Family Code s. 2337, pursuant to which I believe a ruling on dissolving the formal marital status is made ahead of resolving other (eg financial) issues:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=fam&group=02001-03000&file=2330-2348

Anyone have any experience as to whether a bifurcated divorce ruling would constitute a "divorce" or "legal separation" (both COBRA qualifying events under our plan)? Bonus points for Calfornia practitioners but any state would be helpful.

Note this is a separate question from whether the employee will remain financially responsible for providing health coverage pending total dissolution - the CA Family Code suggests that this could be addressed in the ruling, so the only question in my mind is whether the coverage (if any) should be provided as regular spousal coverage or through COBRA.

Thanks for any guidance!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm not an attorney, but in CA benefits for a long time. I think the section is pretty clear - it's granting dissolution (divorce) but reserving jurisdiction on other issues pending resolution. Unless your plan has a provision allowing for coverage of ANY person as required by a court order, the dissolution would result in loss of eligibility and invoke a COBRA offer for the ex-spouse. Any kids would stay covered. If the employee still has financial responsibility for the ex-spouse medical they should check out the state insurance exchange, Covered California, for comparable coverage as required under 2337©(2), which may be cheaper than COBRA.

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