Women More Likely Than Men to Lose Health Insurance After Divorce
While divorce sometimes creates plenty of obvious personal and financial difficulties, the status of health insurance is a concern that often receives little attention from divorcing spouses. But this perception is changing.
However, about 16 percent of women lose health insurance within six months following a divorce and go without medical coverage for at least two years, according a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.
The study, which was led by Bridget Lavelle, pored through 11 years of data collected by the U.S. Census, and researched the health insurance status of thousands of women both before and after a divorce.
Lavelle, who is affiliated with the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, observed that women who were covered under their husband’s health insurance plan before a divorce were at the highest risk for being uninsured six months after divorce. Of these women, almost one in four were uninsured after their divorce.
And, according to Lavelle, men do not experience the same risk of insurance loss as they are more likely to continue receiving health benefits through their employer. This trend also reflects what some see as men’s better overall financial well-being after a divorce.
The results of this study align with other public surveys that have discovered that women often experience a disproportionate decline in economic status after a divorce.
Sources indicate that 22 percent of recently divorced women are living in poverty, compared to 11 percent of recently divorced men. This factor alone often makes it difficult for a woman to afford private health insurance after a divorce.
Fortunately, though, despite the high risk of losing health insurance after a divorce, many states allow the children of divorced parents to seek coverage under state insurance programs.
The biggest of these programs, however, is Medicaid, and this insurance program is only available to parents who have exceptionally low incomes. And many women whose incomes fall above the federal poverty line still struggle to tend to their children’s medical needs.
According to Lavelle, under the rules of many state’s Medicaid programs, a single divorced woman raising two children would have to earn less than $16,000 each year to qualify for government assistance with her children’s health care.
