Divorce can mean not only the loss of a relationship for women, but also health insurance.

A new study has found that 115,000 women each year lose private health insurance following a divorce and 65,000 lose all health insurance coverage. This occurrence stems from wives being on their husbands’ health plans and their inability to pay for their own coverage following the breakup of a marriage.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that women’s overall insurance coverage remains lower for more than two years after divorce.

Those most vulnerable to losing coverage are middle-class women, according to the study’s lead author, Bridget Lavelle, a PhD candidate in public policy and sociology.

“Women in moderate-income families face the greatest loss of insurance coverage,” Lavelle said in a press release. “They are more likely than higher-income women to lose private coverage and they have less access than lower-income women to public safety-net insurance programs.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Divorce Puts Women at Risk of Losing Health Insurance, Study Finds (U.S. News & World Report)

Divorce and Women's Risk of Health Insurance Loss (by Bridget Lavelle and Pamela J. Smock, Journal of Health and Social Behavior)