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? about HC benefits while on maternity leave...
A friend was just telling me that while she was on maternity leave... since her company wasn't paying her... the state was... she has to cover her FULL monthly healthcare costs (like $500/month or something outrageous).
She claimed that this is standard practice.
I only pay $100/month out of my pay check now... so I have no idea how much my company is covering for me. I'd HATE to have $500/month get sucked out of my disability leave.
Did this happen to anyone else?
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Re: ? about HC benefits while on maternity leave...
Sounds like an important question I need to ask.
FMLA protects your benefits - while under FMLA, you are required to pay your co-pay (I sent a check to my employer every pay period), but not your full premium.
My FMLA ran out before my pregnancy, so I was then covered by the California Family Rights Act, which works the same as FMLA and is also 12 weeks. After that ran out, my employer didn't ask me to pay the full premium, although they could have. I just continued to pay the co-pay.
Both of those protections are only offered at companies with 50 or more employees, so if your friend wasn't covered by FMLA, her company legally can ask her to pay the total premium during her leave. It's a crappy thing to do, IMO, but some companies do it. Not all, though.
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Please do your research if you're eligible for FMLA and CFRA - not all HR's are familiar with the benefits of it and some have been known to think they can charge you the full benefit...you really have to be your own advocate. FMLA is federal law and companies are not supposed to pick and choose which benefits to enforce. Most are really ignorant of the laws.
FMLA does not protect vacation accrual or 401K contributions or anything like that. That is up to the company. That includes when you are out on SDI. I didn't accrue any vacation time or anything from the moment I was taken out of work, which is totally legal.
That makes sense. The coworker that had to pay her premium was when we were at a company with only 40 people.
Ok, so you'd go out at 36 weeks then? Assuming you coverage was uneffected?
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My company continued to pay my premiums for my health coverage while on leave. Per our HR recap, I was still considered an employee even out on leave.
I did have to send them a check every month for the premiums of my dependants though. Usually that would come directly out of my paycheck, but since I wasn't receiving a check I had to mail in the premiums.
Honestly... if I could live off 55% pay for ANOTHER month... yes... but we can't.
For my employer, FMLA covered my health care benefits. FMLA does not pay you.
I was paid by SDI and then PFL while I was out, and FMLA covered my benefits. I did have to pay my contribution while out.