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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am so angry.

I am a contractor with benefits, or so I thought. I've been with my job for two years - I started in July 2024. My mom unexpectedly passed a month later, and I had a really, really hard time. I wish I could've had longer than the week I was out to grieve; my mental health took an extreme nose dive for months. So, this year I decided I was going to enroll in short-term disability. Open enrollment was from 10/27/25 - 11/7/25. I had a doctor's appointment and found out I was pregnant 11/23/25. I was discussing my leave with HR, and because short-term disability is based on the last missed period or conception (just found this out today), I don't qualify. Since I'm a contractor, I don't get maternity leave, only short-term disability, so I have absolutely nothing.

I can't believe this. I am so angry that they don't go by medical confirmation. Meanwhile, my fiancé gets 8 weeks, and my brother-in-law is getting SIX months of paid leave, while his wife only gets 2 weeks. We had planned to sign a lease for a much larger place this week (we currently live in a 1-bedroom condo with two dogs), but because of this, we will now need to stay put. I'm glad we still have a place to live, but since I won't have any income for at least 6 weeks, we'll have to be even more cramped here.

I know there's more than one reason why the fertility rates are so low here, but sheesh, if we were more pro-birth, maybe people would be inclined to have children. [/quote]

You knew the dates for open enrollment so why didn't you use your head for something other than a hat rack by either both you and partner using birth control and a condom or simply abstaining so you would not fall pregnant during open enrollment?  I agree with the poster up thread who said you were just gaming the system and you lost.

One of the most important, if not the most important, attributes of an adult is accepting responsibility for your decisions when they turn out bad.
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Who tf plans their sex life around freaking open enrollment lol. [/quote]

Actually I agree with the PP. If there are times when you’re uninsured or can’t get pregnant for whatever reason then you should have made sure there’s no chance of getting pregnant. It doesn’t kill you to do that for a couple of months![/quote]

It wasn’t a couple of months. I started a 3 month contract ( they extended it months later) in July of 2024, so I enrolled when I started. I didn’t have another open enrollment until this November of 2025.[/quote]

If you enrolled when you started, then I don't understand the situation.  Are you saying that you'd been enrolled in STD since 7/2024, but that they are denying you because you were pregnant when you reenrolled?  If that's true and you had continuous covers from 7/2024 then that's ridiculous, and I would fight that.  Or did you enroll in 7/2024, and then drop it at the next open enrollment in 11/2024 and pick it up a year later?

I feel very strongly that the system for maternity leave in our country is broken, and we should have some kind of national insurance, or state based insurance that covers this.

However, I also think that if you're in a relationship where pregnancy is a possibility, and you or your partner would continue a pregnancy if it starts, then understanding your employer's maternity benefit or lack thereof is important as you make decisions.  The system is messed up, but the issue here isn't that the insurer only covers events that happen during the coverage period.  The issue is both political, and the decision of the employer to only offer STD.  [/quote]

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