Aflac?

californiaborn

Does anyone have this to cover their pregnancies? I know you have to have it 10 months before delivery for them to cover you, but why have this on top of your health insurance?

fricksgirl

I had it when I was pg with ALex... don't ahve it now since I've changed jobs since then.

Basically, it pays you an additional amount for maternity leave.  It's not much, but it does payout more than it costs to enroll in it, so in my book it's a no-brainer.  I guess it depends on how our maternity leave works- talk to your HR person.  They should be able to help you.

And be persistent.  If you don't understand- make them explain it until you do.  Many times this stuff is made confusing on purpose because they don't want you to know what your rights are.  Best thing is if you are lucky enough to work with someone you trust who is pretty smart that just had a baby, then you can get the inside scoop from them!  I know it's weird to talk about it with employers when it's just a "possibility" in the future.

GL!

H

Mrs.K&C

MrsJulieT:

I remember when the person came to talk to us he basically said if you are in childbearing years and want children that it is a no brainer to have the insurance.

This isn't really true for everyone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but do teacher's receive SDI (California State Disability Insurance)? For some reason I didn't think they did. In that case, when you have no disability insurance available from the state you will likely want disability insurance in case of any short term or long term disability, not just for pregnancy/maternity leave. 

In terms of just pregnancy/maternity leave, those of us that pay into SDI will get 4 weeks prior to the due date and 6 weeks after delivery paid at about 55% of our gross salary. Private short term disability insurance on top of that normally will not exceed 67% of your gross salary anyway, so you're not getting a whole lot more from the private insurance. 

Also, some companies (although rare) offer a paid maternity leave program, in which case you wouldn't use short term disability anyway. And others, like mine, offer short and long term disability insurance as part of their benefits package - I don't pay into it, but receive the benefits. 

It really, really depends on your individual situation whether or not it's a cost effective idea to get private disability insurance or not. 

MarksGrrl

I didn't use it for pregnancy since I wasn't covered, but once upon a time we had Aflac and tried using it for other stuff...trips to the ER and the like.  It was such a PITA, their customer service stunk, they denied claims that shouldn't have been denied, the account rep that was supposed to be available to help resolve issues like that was non-existent.  We had nothing but problems so we jumped ship.

I work in HR and have dealt with my share of benefit providers and Aflac just plain sucked.  So, just a warning before you decide whether or not you want to pick them up.