When it comes to child support in Maryland, any extraordinary medical expenses incurred on behalf of a child will be added to the basic child support obligation and will be divided between parents in proportion to their actual adjusted income. There are many other factors that the court may consider when determining child support. It is important to speak with an attorney or someone from the Office of Child Support Control for more information or if you have other questions. Dual insurance (when both parents provide health insurance for the same child) can be detrimental to the family, increase overall insurance costs for all, and reduce coverage for your child. Generally, the parent who has primary physical custody of the children (the custodial parent) is the person who will receive child support.
If the court finds that a parent who owes child support has been “voluntarily impoverished,” the court can “impute income to him.” This means that a parent who decides to cover their child to save on child support may end up spending more money out of pocket and could also leave their child with poor primary insurance coverage. In general, the Maryland child support formula calculates how much each parent must contribute to their child support based on a proportional share of the parents' combined income. Usually, the court will order child support based on the guidelines, unless someone can show that the guidelines would be unfair and inappropriate in a particular case. Maryland's child support laws are designed to ensure that all children have the financial support of both parents, even if they may live with one other parent. The Child Support Guidelines try to estimate the percentage of income that parents would spend on their children if they lived together. The Department of Human Services has a child support calculator that you can use to estimate the amount of child support in your case.
When the child support calculation includes the exclusive portion of the parents' health insurance premium for children, the premium is credited to each parent based on their share of combined family income. This financial aid is calculated taking into account the child's basic needs, from housing to medical care. If basic child support is not enough to meet your child's needs due to rising medical costs or out-of-pocket payments, then you may want to talk to an attorney or someone from the Office of Child Support Control about changes in extraordinary medical expenses law. Any decision made by the court to reduce the amount of child support must be in the interests of the children. We can tell you about what your child support order will cover and how to take advantage of changes in extraordinary medical expenses law.
