Expecting and I just found out I don't qualify for short term disability. America is not pro-life/pro-birth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the blaming and details aside, OP is correct. Conservative US public policy doesn't match the pro-life rhetoric.

Np. They don’t want you working. They want women at home, so clearly they don’t care about you having maternity leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how far along were you on November 23?

8 weeks. I took a pregnancy test on 11/1, but because they go off missed period (October 25) or time of conception (October 10-11), I don't qualify.

You can’t buy insurance after you crashed the car, same with disability insurance.

That’s not the case here. She signed up for it unknowingly pregnant. That’s different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how far along were you on November 23?

8 weeks. I took a pregnancy test on 11/1, but because they go off missed period (October 25) or time of conception (October 10-11), I don't qualify.

You can’t buy insurance after you crashed the car, same with disability insurance.

That’s not the case here. She signed up for it unknowingly pregnant. That’s different.

I don’t know that OP was that clear about when she signed up. Open enrollment started 10/25 and she knew in less than a week she was pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I must have missed it - why did you not enroll in Short term disability when you joined? Or the 1st year of open enrollment?

DP

Nobody wants to pay into a policy they don't think they will need. That is why these policies have rules about when you have to join to get benefits for pregnancy. Unfortunately, OP didn't read the rules carefully before signing up. I agree with her that it is a terrible system but the problem is that the STD is opt in. You need a mandatory system in order to make it make sense financially for people.

This is exactly why most states are going to a mandatory system.

PP here, yep.

I am here for complaints about the lack of paid family leave systems to meet the needs of people like OP. It is truly barbaric that OP has no access to paid or unpaid leave after birth.

That being said, we all have to properly navigate the unfair systems that do exist or face individual consequences. The rules about STD and pregnancy are often made pretty clear. Insurance doesn't work if claims costs exceed premiums, and that is why those rules about pregnancy and childbirth exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how far along were you on November 23?

8 weeks. I took a pregnancy test on 11/1, but because they go off missed period (October 25) or time of conception (October 10-11), I don't qualify.

You can’t buy insurance after you crashed the car, same with disability insurance.

That’s not the case here. She signed up for it unknowingly pregnant. That’s different.

It really isn't. Once again, for those who simply don't get it - it doesn't matter what OP knew, it matters when the qualifying event, as defined in the policy, occurred.

Surely you can see why insurance companies are unwilling to rely on claims of "I didn't know" by people with a significant financial interest in obtaining coverage as the determining factor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how far along were you on November 23?

8 weeks. I took a pregnancy test on 11/1, but because they go off missed period (October 25) or time of conception (October 10-11), I don't qualify.

You can’t buy insurance after you crashed the car, same with disability insurance.

You can do this now with health insurance thanks to the ban on denying care for pre-existing conditions and the elimination of the individual mandate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an enormous policy gap that harms women, children, families, and the economy. We should have universal paid leave.

Countries that have extended maternity leave and benefits also have exponentially high taxes on personal income. To achieve the same in the US the tax would have to be incremental tax increases over a long period of time. Highest tax rate for high earners now is 37%. It would take decades to increase taxes on the Uber rich and it simply is not going to happen.

Mathematically false.

Many countries’ citizens actually pay LESS overall for a far better quality of life. But Americans are too stupid to think beyond “but muh taxes!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will never get over all the shills here for insurance companies and employers effing over employees. Nothing will ever change because too many people have bought into the idiocies of the system

I will never get over people who call others “shills” for actually reading the policy information and playing by the rules. You sound hysterical.

A misogynist insurance company shill on a thread about irresponsible harlots getting pregnant? Color me shocked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ no one finds out they are pregnant at their doctors appointment. It sounds like you knew you were pregnant, signed up for a short-term disability, delayed your doctors appointment a few weeks and are trying to get sympathy for attempting to game the system. You knew your company did not offer short-term disability. And you got pregnant knowing this and thought you could just sign up before it came to light. I mean it stinks for sure but I also understand the insurance company’s point of view

Blah blah blah blah blah.

The greater point is this country's medical system sucks and we are completely unsympathetic to issues related to working and raising children. She is 100% right that this country is not pro-birth. A working woman shouldn't be sol for maternity leave. PERIOD. Her title is absolutely correct. I was an IT person and not a single place I ever worked was family friendly. High performing women were treated like trash when out on maternity leave and when they came back. I was a great, high performing employee and my customer was so upset when she heard through the grapevine that dh and I were doing fertility treatments to get pregnant that there was actually a meeting with my managers to discuss my desire to have children. It was so inappropriate. So many women where I worked did not have children because of the pressures from the job. If you wanted to move up into management, you would pay for it if you had children.

Op I'm sorry you're facing this. The people accusing you of gaming the system are idiots who can't see the larger problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how far along were you on November 23?

8 weeks. I took a pregnancy test on 11/1, but because they go off missed period (October 25) or time of conception (October 10-11), I don't qualify.

You can’t buy insurance after you crashed the car, same with disability insurance.

That’s not the case here. She signed up for it unknowingly pregnant. That’s different.

It really isn't. Once again, for those who simply don't get it - it doesn't matter what OP knew, it matters when the qualifying event, as defined in the policy, occurred.

Surely you can see why insurance companies are unwilling to rely on claims of "I didn't know" by people with a significant financial interest in obtaining coverage as the determining factor?

You can't see the forest for the trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an enormous policy gap that harms women, children, families, and the economy. We should have universal paid leave.

Why? Being a parent and having a pregnancy is a choice. You have annual/sick leave. Save it for a few years like the rest of us.

My employer doesn’t roll over annual and sick leave. How do you suppose I “save it up”? Plus my employer can deny requests for annual leave at its discretion, and I only get 7 sick days per year. Last time I checked, you can’t recover from childbirth in 7 days.

Leave without pay, like the rest of us.

You know only 56% of American workers are eligible for FMLA, right?

Use birth control, like the rest of us.

Can I ask who you think is going to run and operate society when you are old and infirm?

Babies born to people too stupid to use birth control like OP.

You are a vile misogynist. Please go post somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an enormous policy gap that harms women, children, families, and the economy. We should have universal paid leave.

Why? Being a parent and having a pregnancy is a choice. You have annual/sick leave. Save it for a few years like the rest of us.

My employer doesn’t roll over annual and sick leave. How do you suppose I “save it up”? Plus my employer can deny requests for annual leave at its discretion, and I only get 7 sick days per year. Last time I checked, you can’t recover from childbirth in 7 days.

Leave without pay, like the rest of us.

Sigh. That's the point of this post! There is something really wrong if so many women are having to take leave without pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an enormous policy gap that harms women, children, families, and the economy. We should have universal paid leave.

Why? Being a parent and having a pregnancy is a choice. You have annual/sick leave. Save it for a few years like the rest of us.

My employer doesn’t roll over annual and sick leave. How do you suppose I “save it up”? Plus my employer can deny requests for annual leave at its discretion, and I only get 7 sick days per year. Last time I checked, you can’t recover from childbirth in 7 days.

Leave without pay, like the rest of us.

You know only 56% of American workers are eligible for FMLA, right?

Use birth control, like the rest of us.

Can I ask who you think is going to run and operate society when you are old and infirm?

Babies born to people too stupid to use birth control like OP.

And you’re too stupid to realize you can still get pregnant while on birth control

Move to a state where abortion is legal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ no one finds out they are pregnant at their doctors appointment. It sounds like you knew you were pregnant, signed up for a short-term disability, delayed your doctors appointment a few weeks and are trying to get sympathy for attempting to game the system. You knew your company did not offer short-term disability. And you got pregnant knowing this and thought you could just sign up before it came to light. I mean it stinks for sure but I also understand the insurance company’s point of view

Blah blah blah blah blah.

The greater point is this country's medical system sucks and we are completely unsympathetic to issues related to working and raising children. She is 100% right that this country is not pro-birth. A working woman shouldn't be sol for maternity leave. PERIOD. Her title is absolutely correct. I was an IT person and not a single place I ever worked was family friendly. High performing women were treated like trash when out on maternity leave and when they came back. I was a great, high performing employee and my customer was so upset when she heard through the grapevine that dh and I were doing fertility treatments to get pregnant that there was actually a meeting with my managers to discuss my desire to have children. It was so inappropriate. So many women where I worked did not have children because of the pressures from the job. If you wanted to move up into management, you would pay for it if you had children.

Op I'm sorry you're facing this. The people accusing you of gaming the system are idiots who can't see the larger problem.

You're only seeing the larger problem and not seeing that she's also trying to game the system we have. The system should change, but getting angry about people who are playing by the rules as they exist now doesn't change anything.

If you want short term disability for pregnancy, pay for it all the years you aren't pregnant. That's how it works now. and that's how any changed system will also work. There's no magical system where you get it without paying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an enormous policy gap that harms women, children, families, and the economy. We should have universal paid leave.

Why? Being a parent and having a pregnancy is a choice. You have annual/sick leave. Save it for a few years like the rest of us.

My employer doesn’t roll over annual and sick leave. How do you suppose I “save it up”? Plus my employer can deny requests for annual leave at its discretion, and I only get 7 sick days per year. Last time I checked, you can’t recover from childbirth in 7 days.

Leave without pay, like the rest of us.

You know only 56% of American workers are eligible for FMLA, right?

Use birth control, like the rest of us.

Only 44% of Americans deserve to be able to have children? Give me a break.

I wish I could give you a break. I didn't design this broken system, nor am I a designated break-giver for people suffering under the broken system.

You said “use unpaid leave like the rest of us.” Nearly half of us don’t have unpaid leave. That was your ignorance showing.

You always have unpaid leave. My spouse gets no PTO/sick leave/annual leave. It's all unpaid leave.

No, this is not correct. Your employer still has to grant unpaid leave. Otherwise you’re just not showing up for work.

Exactly. I worked for various local government contractors and the government and not a single one of the big and little companies and the govt agency I worked for would allow people to take unpaid leave. I tried once for the death of a not-immediate family member and was turned down. Had I not shown up to work I would have been fired.