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AW- I'm now a Lady of Leisure!
Well a Lady of Leisure for now that is. I got wrote out of work because I can not perform all of my job duties and my work does not adapt my job due to physical limitations. So basically since I can not pick up more than 25 lbs, I'm out! When I told my midwife that I was having pains in my ute when I went to work & lifted my suitcase, caught a person who passed out, pulling/pushing the beverage carts etc... she was like "WHAT?! You shouldn't be lifting more than 25 lbs from 20 weeks on." My company doesn't have enough work to put me on light duty so I'm off now, hopefully w/ 60% pay (which is actaully like 40% pay).
I'm supposed to go back to work in the beginning of May or six weeks after I have my baby, whichever comes first. I can take an additional 12 weeks off but w/ no pay and no health insurance. We might be able to swing the no pay thing for a month or two but the cobra for the health insurance is $820!!! If we get cobra, otherwise the whole cost is about $1300 I'm told. There is no way we can afford that. Keeping in mind that we will have a newborn, would I be crazy to take one extra month off and just not have health care for one month?
Re: AW- I'm now a Lady of Leisure!
That is great for you, but the financial considerations are never fun.
I personally would never give up health insurance, I would be too nervous something would happen like an accident or an illness that would then fall under pre-existing when you do go back on it - especially with a new baby. And finally, if you then wanted it again would you have to wait for open enrollment?
I take it your DH's employer doesn't offer anything? You can join his policy at any time - even if it's not open enrollment - if you loose your own coverage for whatever reason.
One more thing to consider, right now the Fed. Gov't is paying a portion of Cobra - I don't really know all the logistics of that, I just remember getting a legal update about it (I passed it on to our HR) so that might help you out.
No DH's employer does not offer any type of insurance. I would get mine back the first day I went back to work. I'm thinking it's just too risky. I would probably spend the whole month on pins & needles waiting for something to go wrong!
As for the gov. paying part of cobra- it's only for those people who lose their jobs involuntarily. My company was going to lay off the 300 most junior flight attendants but offered the leave to volunteers. Many people who work only for the insurance & flight benefits volunteered saving about 100 jobs. Those 100 people who volunteered don't get that benefit that they thought they would.
BOO!! I had a feeling it might be something like that.
Yeah, I'm just too much of a worrier to go off insurance. But I do know people that do it...
I guess you could look into a bare bones private policy since you know you will have something to go back to right away. When DH was a new graduate and was studying for the bar exam (not employed yet) he had a cheap policy that really only covered him for accidents and major illnesses (we were not married at the time so I couldn't add him to my policy). It also had a really high deductible. That also made me nervous, but not as nervous because although the deductible was high if anything had happened it would not have put him (us) in financial ruin forever due to medical expenses. And we knew it was temporary and just crossed our fingers he didn't need a normal dr. visit in that time period.
i agree that maybe you could get some kind of minimal insurance if you want to take that extra month off but i'd wait until after baby is born to decide. honestly, before having A, i thought 6 wks was way too early to go back but i think it depends on the person...b/c when I hit 6 wks, I thought it really wouldn't be too bad to go back to work (aside from missing my LO). now, I didn't go back to work, but I realized that it's possible and it wouldn't be horrible if i had to.
i would not go w/o coverage for a month, that's too risky, esp post partum and w/a newborn, IMO. my parents had some friends w/a child who had a lapse in health insurance coverage for just one day while they were switching from one company to another... they thought one day wouldn't be a big deal... and it was just their luck that something horrible happened to their child during that one day and they ended up with hospital bills adding up to about $500K
in any case, enjoy your time off
and get lots of sleep while you can 
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Wow, I wish I could stop working already too! Lucky you
But yeah, the financial aspect of it is a downer...
Yeah, Cobra is really expensive. What I did when I had a month of no coverage between finishing grad school and getting married (and going on MH's insurance) was that I just found some cheaper insurance to last me for the month because Cobra was just too expensive and I figured I wouldn't have a lot of dr visits or rx needs during that one month and it would just cover any accidents or emergencies. So maybe you can look for something like this? I searched through UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, BlueCross/Shield, Kaiser (basically the big companies) and found something through GoldenRule (which is affliated with UH but for my state at the time) and did the sign-up online and it was pretty easy and quick. It was only like $25 a month too and I just did it for one month so it wasn't too bad at all. Hopefully you're able to find something! GL!!
Wow Julie, that's rough. Personally I would not go without insurance. Even if it's for yourself (not sure if you're putting baby on your policy or DH's or getting baby his own policy)...you just never know what could potentially happen and having a medical issue w/out insurance can be devestating.
How do other female flight attendants do it? Perhaps you can exchange ideas with others in your industry to get the inside scoop?
It'll be nice to be home now...I wish we had planned for me not to work up until delivery. I'm 37 weeks and feeling it. I have a desk job that is not that demanding physically, but seriously, just getting up and dressed and out the door on time these days is a challenge. I am not sleeping well at night and I know it's affecting me at work. I have a major two-day meeting at the end of next week and it's my goal to get through those. It's literally 10 hours/day of sitting at a board room table, so I am already planning my strategy for getting up and walking, etc. every hour.
After that, I may just try to work from home. We shall see. In AZ, do you qualify for any state disability for pregnancy/maternity? How about umemployment benefits while you're out? Now sure how that'd work if you're still getting 60% pay, but I believe they might fill the "gap" for you. My friends in CA had some sort of govt. assistance when they were on maternity leave at 60% from work. You might look into it. Again, I wouldn't recommend letting your insurance go...unless you can for sure get on your DH"s policy (if he has one) or get private insurance for the three of you. GL!
When we were self-employed I had a PPO with Blue Cross with a $%K deductible (the premium was like $125/mo)...I compared plans via www.ehealthinsurance.com
Again, I would triple check any issues with pre-exisiting...especially for yourself since some companies consider pregnancy pre-exisiting and therefore post-partum care may fall under that umbrella. I just don't know. So really look into it if you plan to let your own coverage go for that month.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
Thanks for all your replies ladies. The answers to this post have helped me to make the right decision, which I knew deep down all along anyway. I won't be taking the extra time off.
I'm really glad to hear a few of you say that you would have been okay going back to work at 6 weeks. I'm going to go back to work and just try to work as little as possible (except we laid off so many that we have to work a lot now). I do have four weeks of vacation coming after that point. Each week is more like two weeks off so I'm just going to back those up to each other.
Again, thanks!