One of the joys of post-pregnancy is navigating the bureaucracy of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). While this law was put into place to ensure that people can take care of family business without being penalized, it has its downside. In my case, I have to exhaust my sick leave while on maternity leave, then I can elect to stay on leave without pay for up to 3 months.
Leave without pay???! Yeah, right. I've been with my current employer 2 years, and have accrued only 3 weeks of sick time. Lucky for me, the ol' Snapper was born a week early and healthy. In the meantime, my health insurance was up for summer enrollment, meaning I could make changes to coverage etc. I decided that it would be a smart move to enroll in short term disability, in case, Heaven forbid, one of us gets sick in the next year.
I had to fill out a handy dandy Evidence of Insurability form, and send it off to Dallas. Apparently, being honest on your form gets you absolutely NOWHERE, because today I found out that I was DENIED coverage.
I have to admit, I'm not used to being denied. And who wants to be denied anyway? I've been pretty lucky when it comes to jobs - I've gotten all I've applied for. So denial is something that I'm not really used to. Of course I've been denied credit before, but I can get over that. The last time I was truly denied was when I first applied to graduate school. That was a hard pill to swallow. (They failed to tell me that they denied everyone who applied to the program that year, since the director's position was vacant). I spent a year feeling sorry for myself.
Being denied insurance coverage makes you feel pretty low too. When I called the company to find out exactly WHY I'd been denied, I found out it was because I was pregnant when I applied.
"But I'm not pregnant now..." I told the person on the phone.
"I'm sorry - we can't insure you until you go back to work, and we can't guarantee that we'll insure you then." said the very unhelpful person.
So, I've been denied. One more thing they DON'T tell you about AFTER you have a baby.
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4 comments:
That's swell. The system at work--penalizing women for raising future generations who will be taking care of us all in the nursing home. I can't see this happening to a man. It should be illegal to discriminate based on pregnancy. I remember the last time I had health insurance with the evil empire (United Healthcare), I paid the same premium every month as the 400 lb. smoker who worked in HR. So then if I had become pregnant, I would have had trouble getting additional coverage, but old Smokey would still be in the black? That's terrific. That's awesome. I am exceptionally angry about this and if you want me to picket or petition or something, you just say where and when and I've got your back. There is no one who provides true health insurance; you can only get sick insurance and only if you're never sick! Grrr. Grrr. GRRR!
i'm with mary...we'll be your bruisers if we must.
i love your new blog design!
i'm happy about your new flower design, too. i'm dying to hear about your trip to austin...c'mon, c'mon!!!
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