Keeping your own healthcare going
You have spent years booking everybody else’s appointments. Now the coverage is changing, the deductible has reset in the middle of the year, and your own records are at a practice you chose because it was near a house you no longer live in. This is the boring page and it is the one that saves you the most money.
The Practical Healthcare Problem
Divorce frequently disrupts health insurance, primary care continuity, and mental health access at exactly the moment those things matter most, and most people do not know their actual legal rights to their own medical records or to mental health coverage parity. These are fixable logistics problems with specific rules behind them.
Losing employer-sponsored health coverage through a spouse is a common and predictable consequence of divorce, and COBRA is the primary but often expensive bridge option.
A divorced spouse who was covered under a former spouse’s employer plan loses eligibility for that plan and is a qualifying event under COBRA, which allows the former spouse to purchase continued coverage under the same plan, generally for up to 36 months, but typically at close to the full unsubsidized premium cost. The Department of Labor also allows enrollment in a Marketplace plan through a special enrollment period triggered by the loss of coverage, which is often cheaper than COBRA for people who qualify for subsidies.
You have a federal legal right to get a full copy of your own medical records quickly and at a limited, cost-based fee, whether you are switching doctors after a divorce or for any other reason.
Under HIPAA’s right of access rule, 45 C.F.R. section 164.524, a covered healthcare provider or health plan must act on a records request no later than 30 calendar days after receipt, with one permitted 30-day extension if the patient is notified in writing of the delay and given a specific completion date. Permitted fees are limited to reasonable, cost-based charges for labor, supplies, and postage; providers cannot charge retrieval, search, or general administrative fees, and per-page fees are specifically not appropriate for electronic copies pulled from an electronic health record.
Federal law generally requires health plans to cover mental health and substance use treatment no more restrictively than they cover physical health care, though enforcement of this rule has been inconsistent.
Reported consistently, not settled
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) requires group health plans and insurers that offer mental health or substance use disorder benefits to apply financial requirements (like copays) and treatment limitations (like visit limits or prior authorization) that are no more restrictive than those applied to medical and surgical benefits. A 2024 final rule strengthened enforcement requirements, but in 2025 the responsible federal departments announced a period of non-enforcement of some of the newer 2024 provisions while litigation and policy review continued, meaning the underlying 1996/2008 parity law is still in force even as some of the newest enforcement mechanics are in flux.
Federal law caps what they can charge to reasonable, cost-based fees and requires a response within 30 days, with only one permitted 30-day extension if you are notified in writing.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, 2024, HHS.gov
Federal parity law requires most group health plans to cover mental health and substance use treatment on par with medical and surgical care. If your plan applies stricter limits, higher copays, or more prior authorization hurdles to therapy or psychiatric care than to comparable medical care, that may violate MHPAEA, and it is worth raising with your plan or an ERISA attorney.
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, 2025, U.S. Department of Labor
What to actually do
- As soon as divorce is underway, confirm exactly when you will lose coverage under a spouse’s plan, and compare COBRA cost against a Marketplace special enrollment plan; the loss of coverage itself qualifies you for a special enrollment window outside the normal open enrollment period.
- Request full copies of your medical records from your longtime family doctor and any specialists before you lose easy access, using your HIPAA right of access; you do not need your former spouse’s permission or involvement to request your own records.
- If a provider quotes a fee for records that seems to include search or administrative time, or a per-page charge for an electronic record, you can push back citing 45 C.F.R. 164.524(c)(4).
- If you have been deferring your own checkups, screenings, or mental health care while managing everyone else’s appointments during the marriage or the divorce, book your own physical and a mental health intake as a discrete task, the same way you would any other logistics item on a divorce checklist.
- COBRA coverage is time-limited and can be expensive once you are paying the full premium yourself; price it out against Marketplace options before defaulting to it.
- Parity law does not guarantee unlimited mental health coverage or that your specific plan is compliant; if you suspect a violation, your state insurance department or the Department of Labor’s EBSA can take a complaint.
Keep reading
- Health insurance after divorce — COBRA, the marketplace, and the timing
- Mental health cover and parity
- What things cost