Maternal Disability Insurance
Having a baby is usually a happy feat but when labor time comes and women miss work, this supposed blissful event turns sour as women are incapable to work for months either before or after delivery or beyond the time frame of the maternity leave. With this absence from work, women are sometimes not able to get the wage they were supposed to get for those missed months and, in worst case scenarios, have no more job waiting for them when they go back to work. This is unfortunate as a recent study claims that 29 percent of short term disabilities and 12 percent of long term disabilities are because of pregnancies. Hence, women experience a trauma as they are left paid less, sometimes jobless with a baby in tow.
Maternity disability insurance is usually under short term disability insurances - an insurance policy that usually covers a portion of your salary during the instance that you are unable to go to work and do your job due to childbirth. These kinds of policies are temporary in nature because they serves as partial income substitute for hindering non- occupational illnesses or grievances that aren't probable to last a long time. Usually, larger companies, states and unions offer this kind of insurance. Private insurance policies that are provided by your employers cover your month's income between 50 to 100% (depending on how long you've worked for that company), lasting typically up to 6 weeks though some extend this time frame for bed rest or more complicated labors. State maternity disability insurance on the other hand covers 50 to 60% of your salary lasting to about 4 to 6 weeks while being able to be extended to 12.
Since private insurances covered by the employer and state disability insurance are both short term in nature, it is preferable that you purchase an individual long term disability insurance just in case. This is so because if the short term disability insurance expires while the mother is still bed ridden and is unable to work, the long term disability insurance can then take over the expired insurance policy and provide wage for the woman up until 5 years and sometimes, longer. Another issue is that since most private insurances provided by the employer are group disability insurance, the policy only provides 42% of the woman's income, including tax deductions. Group insurance policies are highly more disadvantageous than individual policies as the former is usually peppered with limitations that further lessens and sometimes eradicate benefits in total.

Getting an individual/supplemental maternity disability insurance, the mother-to-be is able to protect her salary up to a 100% as it caps the many discrepancies of group disability insurance while being tax free. It is to be known though that the time a mother should purchase for individual/supplemental insurance coverage is before being pregnant because once the client is known to be already pregnant, the validity of the insurance is dissolved. What is important is that future moms should carefully consider their needs and purchase an insurance policy that caters to their specific cases since without these insurance policies, women are prone to the risk of being unpaid for months, causing financial stress on the mother and her family. Next I guess you need to think about protecting your kids by filling out your life insurance application.
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Comments
Insurance would definitely help the employee in this case. However, isn't it illegal to lay off a pregnant employee while she's on maternal leave?
Pregnant employees have the right to return to work after the leave, or at least be transferred to a new position or new task that is equal to her previous work, once she returns from maternal leave.
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