Like most children around your child’s age, you may not be surprised to learn that your child requires braces treatment for their crowded or crooked adult teeth that grew in. However, you may be shocked by the medical bills that come with braces. This is because your child’s braces treatment may last for a year or longer, with the cost of installation, removal, and follow-up appointments in between. So, if you are divorced, you may wonder if your child’s noncustodial parent can and should help bear the brunt of this added expense. Well, read on to discover whether your standing child support arrangement covers the cost of your child’s braces and how one of the seasoned Somerset County child support lawyers at the Law Offices of Kisha M. Hebbon, LLC can help make sure your child is adequately taken care of.
When calculating your initial child support arrangement, the New Jersey family court looked into every possible expense your child would likely incur while they were still of minor age. As far as medical expenses go, the court considered the cost of your child’s health insurance coverage, health insurance premiums, and namely, unreimbursed medical expenses like deductibles, co-pays, and other relevant medical bills not covered by insurance.
Now, your child’s braces and overall orthodontic bills may fall under the unreimbursed medical expenses category. However, the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines hold that child support for unreimbursed medical expenses may only go up to $250 per year per child. This is to say that your child’s noncustodial parent may only be expected to pay $250 per year for your child’s braces. It may become evident to you that this is not close to covering the full extent of this expense.
If you have remained amicable with your former spouse since the divorce, you may express your concerns about the added expense you are about to take on with your child’s braces. Hopefully, this may prompt them to make an informal arrangement with you to give more child support payments for the time being.
However, in the more realistic event that your former spouse is unwilling to offer more than what they are legally obligated to, you may have to file a petition for a post-judgment modification with the New Jersey family court. Here, you must understand that the court may be unwilling to order an increase in child support payments if your child’s braces are simply for cosmetic purposes. That is, you may have to provide medical proof that your child has tooth crowding; jaw development problems; misaligned bites that affect their chewing or speech; or other things that may lead to long-term health issues if they go unresolved.
If you find yourself at a crossroads, please seek the sound advisement of one of the competent Somerset County family lawyers. Someone at the Law Offices of Kisha M. Hebbon, LLC will stand by your side at a moment’s notice.
