Thursday, December 13, 2007

Child support and insurance for the child- Do Healthcare Savings Plans Have a Place?

I do not see any people around here with a medical savings accounts. Those that do might want to read Houston Divorce & Family Law Attorney Blog's Medical Savings Plans - One Alternative for Handling Children's Medical Expenses.

I do know these are fairly recent tools for handling medical expenses. The article contains this paragraph:

"Many employees have access to pre-tax savings devices called Medical Savings Plans or Medical Savings Accounts. Through such plans, an enrolled employee participant may designate a portion of his/her pre-tax income to be deposited in an account designated for health care. One of the benefits is lowering the employee’s taxable income. Another benefit is saving for large ticket items such as annual deductibles, surgeries, braces, or other medical services which may not be covered by an insurance carrier."
I think these plans might pose some interesting questions when it comes time to determine child support. Would they qualify as an insurance premium under Indiana's child support guidelines? If so, what portion of the deduction can be applied to only the child? If the deduction cannot be apportioned between parent and child, I think there is a problem arguing this deduction is an analog to insurance premiums but then what of using the plan as grounds for deviating from the Guidelines? Ah, the wonder of the unforeseen meeting the established law.

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