Even with the children covered by health and dental insurance, there are usually uncovered expenses like copays, deductibles and misc over the counter items your child may need, and uncovered expenses like orthodontics. Who pays what portion of these expenses, and dental braces fall under that category as few plans cover them, and those that do do not cover them in full, is usually mentioned in the support order.

Does your order say nothing about those unreimburesed/uncovered out of pocket expenses? If so, that may be brought up in your upcoming modification. Brace yourself to open your wallet.

It depends on what your court order says in my court order he's responsible for half of all medical expenses not covered by insurance. If she's billing both insurances at least the cost should be much less than if you only had one insurance. If she can prove that your current child support order doesn't cover what all needs to be covered they may raise your child support obligation. Some states it's pretty much par for the course that both parents have to pay uncovered medical expenses and in other states it's not so common. In my state they don't garnish for medical expenses unless you take them back to court and can prove that there's been a lot that wasn't paid back by the non custodial parent. I encourage you to read your court order, if it says nothing about who pays uncovered medical expenses than don't pay if you don't want to, but your child support order may be raised either way. Good luck.

My child support order and divorce decree both state I shall provide medical insurance. Nothing more is said about co-pays or the amounts not covered by insurance. My concern is that she is double dipping. She pays the dentist and gets a bill showing she paid. Then she requests reimbursement from the insurance company. She wants me to pay half and then gets reimbursed. My kids dont have crowded teeth, overbites, crooked teeth, or anything. She just wanted them to be perfect. I have read other people say orthodontists won't put on braces unless it is neccessary and that is BS! It seems I should be allowed access to these dentists and the bills, but she blacked out their info on all the bills she sent to child support. I hope child support is smart enough to see thru this.

Do you still have a copy of the worksheet that was used to determine the support amount? sometimes it's there, and not simply in the part of the order that says X dollars a week.

It only talks about our percentage of responsability to provide medical insurance, since she was also required to provide insurance if available.

This is not about trying to get out of paying, it is more about being able to see my children. I would just like to be able to pay my support and fly me kids up here or me fly down there to see them on a regular basis. With her trying to stick me for every cent, that is not going to be possible. As it is now, I usually am able to fly them up during the summer. If I start paying for all of these bills, there is no way I will be able to see them. She can use the military doctors and dentists for a HUGE discount, but she said I should be a man and not a deadbeat dad and just pay.

My husband has been through the same scenario with his ex. Child support is meant to cover the full care and maintenance of the children and anything above child support that is not mentioned specifically in your court order, is considered a gift in the eyes of the court. Being this is the case, you are not obligated to pay anything above your court ordered child support obligation, unless it is specifically mentioned in your court order.

Believe me, I am far too familiar with the type of ex that will nickle and dime you to death. My husband was getting requests to cover Halloween costumes, bathing suits, school year books, school rings and everything under the sun, on top of the child support and health insurance coverage he already paid to his ex monthly.

Bottom line, he isn't paying her anything above child support going forward and he doesn't have to. Don't let your ex take advantage of you!

I am curious as to what type of custody you have? If you have joint legal custody, any decisions regarding health, education and religious upbringing are supposed to be shared between you and your ex wife. If she got braces for the kids without discussing it with you first, and you have joint legal custody, she can not reasonably expect you to pay half.

Also, because you are in the middle of a child support modification, I caution you that she could bring up these expenses in court and you could be court ordered to pay more support because she is showing all of these expenses.

However, if she is not consulting you before she is making these decisions, and you have joint legal custody, you can file contempt charges against her for not honoring the divorce decree/separation agreement. There is no room for unilateral decision making when it comes to joint legal custody. In many cases, judges have actually reversed custody due to contempt. Judges do not like it when someone disregards or disrespects a court order.

Personally, I would advise you to speak to an attorney to better weigh your options. Another possibility would be to file for a modification of custody, and request shared or 50/50 custody. The more time you have your children, the less child support you will pay.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks IMO, but shared custody is not really an option since she is a military spouse and they move all over the place. She gives me a lot of crap for not living near the kids, but they have moved from California, Florida, Colorado, were supposed to go to Japan, then to South Carolina, and are now back in California. It is impossible to keep up and you are right, she is just trying to nickel and dime me. I wanted to add earlier that my ex is a hypochondriac and always has been. I didn't because I knew people would say that I am just bashing her but it's true. My kids are healthy with no ongoing health issues, but they will go to the doctor and dentist on a weekly basis. The fact that my son told me she said she would ruin me financially before I get hit with these bills, it just proves that is what she is trying to do. It is sad really, because the money could be spent to fly the kids here to see me. And no, she doesn't consult with me on anything, but my divorce paperwork doesn't give me any say so anyway.