Health insurance during pregnancy related disbility

[Vess]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Work in NY, live in NJ
I suppose for this matter the state should be NY.
I have been working with this company fr 6 months. They pay in full my health insurance premium. I will need to take time off to recover from delivery, I am currently 8mo pregnant. NY is one of the 6 states that recognize pregnancy as disability and has special disability insurance.
I do not qualify under FMLA to take 12 weeks off and my employer does not pay anything to new Moms.
I want to take time off afer my delivery as short term disbility. My doctor will determine when I can come back to work (6 or 8 weeks is the usual). My employer refuses to pay my health insurance while I am gone on this disability unpaid time off. I e-mailed them several times and their answer is: You do not qualify for FMLA since you have not been here for 12 months, therefore no medical insurance. I am confused because I am not taking FMLA.
Do they have to continue paying my health insurance during these 6-8 weeks determined by my doctor as disability period? Is that a strong base for a descrimination? I called the NY Division of Human Rights, they said that I can file a complaint but no one answered if my employer is supposed to pay my health insurance. I don't want to file a complaint unless I know my rights.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!

 

[Beth3]

My employer refuses to pay my health insurance while I am gone on this disability unpaid time off. I e-mailed them several times and their answer is: You do not qualify for FMLA since you have not been here for 12 months, therefore no medical insurance. I am confused because I am not taking FMLA. The FMLA requires that employer's maintain an employee's health insurance while the employee is on FMLA. What your employer is telling you is that since FMLA doesn't apply in your situation, they have no obligation to do so for you and they're not going to.

Do they have to continue paying my health insurance during these 6-8 weeks determined by my doctor as disability period? No.

Is that a strong base for a descrimination? No. The only way this would be discrimination is if they would continue paying for the health insurance for another employee who had been there for less than a year and went on medical leave for several months for other than pregnancy. The law entitles you to the same treatment as any other similarly situated employee would receive, not special treatment.

I called the NY Division of Human Rights, they said that I can file a complaint but no one answered if my employer is supposed to pay my health insurance. I don't want to file a complaint unless I know my rights. Your employer does not have to pay for your health insurance while you are on leave. In fact they don't even have to offer you leave at all. I'd think long and hard about filing a complaint with NY's DHR since (a) your employer isn't violating any laws, and (b) they're being considerably more generous with you than they are required to be. If they wished to, they could terminate your employment the first day your doctor said you were unable to work.