Court Opinion

ID: 9722025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:14:46.570913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:30.091403
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: With a weekly take-home income of only $362.86, and with four people dependent on him for support, it is clear respondent is in great difficulty. Respondent has determined that he and his present family cannot afford health insurance. The determination is different for the child of his first marriage, however, not because the trial court found that respondent can afford health insurance, or the trial court found that a reasonable person would maintain health insurance in these circumstances, but because section 505.2 of the Act in compliance with Federal law mandates such coverage. This case was not decided in Cass County, or in Springfield, but in Washington, D.C. Overall the result of Federal mandates on child support has been a positive one, but in many cases the flexibility to come up with a sensible solution on the basis of particular facts has been lost. During oral argument, counsel for the Department suggested that if respondent could not make these payments he could seek to reduce the $50-per-week child support which he pays petitioner. If petitioner had to choose between food or health insurance she might be expected to choose food, but the fact is she has no choice. The statute is mandatory.