Divorce costs thousands of women health insurance coverage every year

Over 110,000 women forfeit their individual health coverage each year when they divorce. This loss isn’t temporary. Adult females have lower coverage than males for over twenty years following divorce.

“With roughly one million divorces happening each year in America, and many women obtaining health insurance through their spouse, the consequence is substantial,” says Bridget Lavelle, a Ph.D. aspirant in state policy at the University of Michigan.

Lavelle conducted a study , which analyzed national representation longitudinal data for the years 1996 through 2007 and looked at women between 26 and 64. Her co-researcher was Pamela Smock, and the study was sponsored by UM National Poverty Center.

Included in the study’s findings:

• Every year, approximately 65,000 separated females drop all health coverage in the period following separation. Despite the economic catastrophe divorced women frequently experience, many don’t qualify for public insurance such as Medicaid.
• Women underwritten as dependents on their husband’s employer-based policy are especially exposed to losing coverage following divorce.
• Women who have their employer-based protection are less apt than other females to lose coverage but are not entirely protected from loss of insurance due to financial losses stemming from the divorce.

Lavelle and Smock discovered that fulltime employment and education are excellent buffers which protect women from losing coverage following divorce. Since many women manage part-time jobs or in businesses not providing health coverage, the protective effects of employment are not universal

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of ladies lose their private health insurance every year — on top of all the other financial losses that divorce brings.