In some divorces or family law matters, both parents have insurance for their children. Both parents do not always have insurance. However, this is sometimes the case.
When both parents insure a child, a vital issue is who the primary and secondary insurance carriers are.
Oddly, this question is typically handled by the birthday rule. Simply put, insurance companies look at the birthdays of both parents. The parent whose birthday comes earlier in the year is the primary carrier, while the parent whose birthday is later in the year is the secondary carrier. Thus, a party whose birthday is in January would be primary if the other parent’s birthday was in July.
Tthe primary carrier’s insurance is used first. If the primary carrier’s insurance does not cover everything, the secondary insurance covers anything remaining. The birthday would also apply to dental insurance.
Exceptions to this rule occur when both parents have the same birthday, which is only a 1/365 chance. The parties could also delineate it differently in their divorce or custody paperwork. However, it is not set in stone that an insurance company would allow what is in the divorce or custody paperwork to override the birthday rule.
Both parties often do not cover the children after a divorce or custody case. But where that is the case, it is vital to know the birthday rule—as random and peculiar as it may seem.