Key Child Support Related Provisions from the Affordable Care Act

I've been researching the affects the new health care law will have on individuals who pay child support. As I find more information related to this I would like to share it with everyone so we can all be ahead of the game, if possible.

This is the impact the ACA will have on child support, plus other key elements. The info below was taken from this source: (pdf: The ACA and the Child Support Enforcement Program)

Impact on Child Support:

More children with healthcare coverage

Increase in new medical support orders

Private health insurance will be available through increased employer offerings or individual policies through health insurance exchanges

The majority of parents will no longer be able to report "lack of access to insurance" as a reason to avoid a medical support order

A shift toward increased number of custodial parents being ordered to provide coverage

Increased need for medical support order review and modification

Ordered parents will be more likely to comply MSO's because of the increased availability of private insurance coverage options.

It remains to be seen how child supports role in the ACA will define it's policies, and who will take the lead in enforcing medical support orders.

ETA: I just located some videos relating to the topic.

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

The model for Obamacare is undoubtedly the Massachusetts healthcare reform law which Romney put in to place in 2006. And as of 2011 the cost for coverage in Massachusetts continues to rise.

To help answer some questions pertaining to child support, let's look at some issues there and how it ballooned in to higher costs, which then fell onto the working poor which were mostly low income, divorced fathers who are working, and are paying child support, but who are unable to afford health insurance.

I'm not saying anything similar will happen, but considering the model and it's successor the ACA, things may not differ greatly.

If everyone is required to have health insurance under the ACA, how can there be a medical support order?

Wouldn't the custodial parent be responsible for obtaining health insurance and wouldn't that policy cover the children?

Originally posted by N3k9Ni
If everyone is required to have health insurance under the ACA, how can there be a medical support order?

Wouldn't the custodial parent be responsible for obtaining health insurance and wouldn't that policy cover the children?

Medical support orders are something a non-custodial parent is usually deemed to have under a court order through the CSEA or a marital divorce or separation. The MSO is not something directly related to the ACA or administered through them, it may possibly be grandfathered in.

If the custodial parent is using Medicaid through the CSEA to provide insurance coverage for the children or child, or has a private provider through work, the non-custodial parent is usually ordered to supply additional coverage through a MSO established by the courts, upon divorce or separation. That is how a MSO comes into play under the ACA and child support. Although it is not directly related, it is.

To answer your second question the answer is yes, but the non-custodial parent is also required if their is a MSO through the courts or the CSEA. If the father is poor and work doesn't provide coverage, the ACA makes it possible. I think, and if I am quoting this correctly, in the Massachusetts model, fathers, predominately poor working men, were required to pay back the Medicaid their children were provided through CSEA or another court order, up to 8% of gross pay or however determined according to pay grade.