Short term disability ins for maternity leave???

hldubble · November 2014

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I are currently trying to get pregnant, but my employer does not offer Short term disability insurance. I saw a few people mention that AFLAC has a policy that they offer, but only after a 10 mo waiting period can you collect. Can anyone tell me if the 10 months have to be prior to conception or if I were to become pregnant a few months from now and give birth after the 10 mo period it would be covered? Sorry if that is confusing... I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to word what I want to say. LOL

TIA

Heather

mandy522 · November 2014

The exclusionary period almost always starts prior to pregnancy, not prior to payout (ie you can't be pregnant when you sign up and just wait 10 months for benefits). But you could call AFLAC or your insurance broker to confirm their specific policy restrictions.

ETA words because this wasn't really clear before.

hldubble · November 2014

That's what I was affraid of

Thanks for your help!

estakis · November 2014

I have short term disability through AFLAC. I can only speak for my plan - it won't pay out in the first 10 months of the plan. So basically you can't already be pregnant when you sign up for it as pregnancy will be considered a pre-existing condition. But, if you sign up for it now and get pregnant no sooner than a month or so from now, you should be good. This info came directly from my agent's mouth who I just met with last week to discuss. I hope that helps!

hldubble · November 2014

That would be wonderful! I should have planned for this earlier... oops! I will be calling Monday to find out the costs, but just wondered if I was still in the clear or if I need to start making other plans. Thanks!! I hope to hear the same news!

CarolinaGirl83 · November 2014

estakis said:
I have short term disability through AFLAC. I can only speak for my plan - it won't pay out in the first 10 months of the plan. So basically you can't already be pregnant when you sign up for it as pregnancy will be considered a pre-existing condition. But, if you sign up for it now and get pregnant no sooner than a month or so from now, you should be good. This info came directly from my agent's mouth who I just met with last week to discuss. I hope that helps!

This is exactly what my agent told me, too.
I don't remember exactly what I pay per month, but it's very reasonable.

renbee · November 2014

I have this insurance through my work. The 10 month waiting period means you can't have a baby sooner than 10 months from the effective date.

I have heard that you can only get the Aflac short term disability plan if your employer offers it. In other words I don't think you can just call Aflac and sign up as an individual like you can with their other plans. I could be wrong though so it is worth a call to them to find out.

estakis · November 2014

I too seem to recall that AFLAC is only available through an employer, at least that's how I got my policy. I bet you could work with a broker to find something that meets your needs. I think I pay $60 a month, and the payout ends up being 3 to 4 paychecks worth of income.

frig05 · November 2014

estakis said:
I have short term disability through AFLAC. I can only speak for my plan - it won't pay out in the first 10 months of the plan. So basically you can't already be pregnant when you sign up for it as pregnancy will be considered a pre-existing condition. But, if you sign up for it now and get pregnant no sooner than a month or so from now, you should be good. This info came directly from my agent's mouth who I just met with last week to discuss. I hope that helps!

This is what my plan does too.

bracingourselves · November 2014

Work already covers std without my having to pay a premium for it. However, I had the option of enrolling through work for a couple of aflac policies right now, so I signed up for hospital indemnity. Unfortunately it won't pay out if I get KU before Feb. 1 (which is my effective date)...kind of wondering if I should bench myself, actually. But for $20 a month I'm willing to gamble.

MsFaith15 · November 2014

I've been thinking about adding this plan but the 10 months is difficult to manage with actively TTC. It would be a game of chance for me.

londonlea04 · November 2014

Now I am really wishing I had signed up for the extra STD plan thru my employer. We have maternity leave, but its solely based on your PTO bank.

dmsmth · November 2014

I am pretty sure it's before payout. I had it when I had #1 and I got pregnant with in the 10 months of signing up and they still payed out my std.

I guess I need to add after reading a few posts, that we got paid some but not a ton. It certainly helped because I had no paid leave other than vaca days. I was able to stay out for 10 weeks with #1 between vaca days and the std. With #2 I had no std and we could only afford for me to stay out 6 weeks. Let me tell you, that if that 6 weeks was for baby #1 I would have never made it. I bounced back much faster the 2nd time around and was used to no sleep etc still, so 6 weeks wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

The us severely lacks in any good maternity leave. It's sad and depressing

I really hope one day it changes, so at least my girls won't have to worry about the BS I had to worry about

Short term disability ins for maternity leave???

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