Maternity leave

firsttimemama1987

Hi everyone,

This is my first baby so I’m new to maternity leave policies and stuff. My work gives 8 weeks of short-term disability as maternity leave (paid by a disability insurance company). Since I’ve never needed disability before, for years I’ve gotten the low plan (60% of pay) rather than paying more to get 75% of my pay if I ever went out on disability. 

Well, now that I’m due in April, I opted for the higher plan when I did open enrollment for 2023. I had to fill out a form and one of the questions was whether I was currently pregnant. I just got a letter that my request to increase my coverage was denied due to the current pregnancy. Maybe I’m just overly emotional right now, but this was really a punch in the gut. I’ve paid into this disability company and never used it for like 13 years, and now I need them for 8 short weeks and they won’t increase my coverage (even with me paying more per pay period)?! I work in healthcare so I KNOW insurance companies are just all about the money, but it really sucks. I’m just wondering if this is standard practice? Has anyone else encountered this? If others have successfully changed coverage in this situation I’d love to know so I can try to appeal it or something. But maybe it’s a lost cause. I hope I don’t come off as entitled, I’m not an entitled person, I just think this system really sucks and kind of lets you down when you need them most in a way…

trubaby411

I don't have any experience to draw from here, but I feel your pain. It's so frustrating to pay into a system that isn't supportive when you need it most. I hope you find a way that this will work out in your favor!

nsk489

@firsttimemama1987 I don't have direct experience either, but used to help with HR at my old company. Pregnancy is considered a "pre-existing condition" 🙄🙄 so if you don't already have short term disability coverage before getting pregnant, they would deny paying you for leave (so any time off would be 100% unpaid). Totally understand your frustration but if I understand correctly you DO have short term disability coverage, just not the higher amount like you were hoping....so the good news is you will get SOME payment. The system definitely sucks though and the US does not have friendly policies towards working mothers!! Some companies will let you stack up your sick days and vacation days and use those towards maternity leave as well, perhaps talk to somebody in your HR dept about your options.
I'm pretty sure one of the other mamas works in HR (can't recall who) but maybe they will see this and chime in.

sydney262

Hi - I’m sorry you’re going through this, that is incredibly frustrating. I work in HR, and unfortunately what you’re describing is totally dependent on your STD (short term disability) provider. I would suggest reaching out to your HR rep if you haven’t already to see what your options are. Also, depending on where you live, you might have additional paid family leave options through the state (for example, CA, NY, NJ, MA, and many others have paid leave for new parents). Best of luck, keep us posted what you find out.