There is only without pay leave for me. Although I have an insurance policy where if I am out for more than a month than they will pay me like 75% of my salary for about a month. The unpaid leave is like 6 weeks long. Oh and just to stick it to you, while you are on that leave, you have to cover the part of your health insurance that your company normally would cover, so even with my leave of absence pay at a reduced amount, I have to pay more of that money out.

And, if you are not back after that 6 weeks, then your company can fire you. In which case, you would lose your health insurance which would mean you would have to pay the full amount of the medical bill for having your child. Of course the way to get around that is to go back to work for 1 day, then it would be covered.

Oh and I can use my vacation if I have any but since vacation each yer is as earned instead of just giving you the whole amount of time in the beginning, If I have a child, I better have it at the end of the year, or I would likely not have any vacation.

heh...yea...and Shiny just reminded me, that may be $100 per pay check I'm paying, rather than $100 /month. So it may be $200/month for my insurance. Ugh.

Paying you for children blows my mind. Like there aren't enough freakin' children in the world. Anyway, like I said, the US health system is pretty broken. But everyone knows that. We'll probably end up going socialist eventually... it'd be the only way to keep all the medical and insurance institutions from raping us any more.

Well, you might want to consider that the huge majority of children born in this world come from third world and/or minority groups. I think most Western European countries actually have a negative population growth.

In the meantime I'll enjoy watching the US transforming into a socialist utopia, comrades.

Just a little update on my progress.

I had 3 of the 4 wisdom teeth removed. unfortunately i lost one necessary tooth also, its from the lower left side, the 6th one. It was damaged beyond help. Not only that it has infected the 7th one aswell. My next appointment is on next Monday so im nervous about the chance of losing that one aswell. That would be major suckage since then the doctor has to to plant and implant into the jaw but the thing is that the bone will start to withdraw from there. And can do so like 1cm in 50 years or so. Fuck.

Anyway if the doctor manages to save it, new teeth will set me back more than 3-4 thousand dollars. Fuck. Hey atleast i know where my money is going.

So next time you grab that soda can, remember its one of the worlds most expensive drink.

Man Peltz, that sucks serious big time. I hope the tooth is salvageable. Had a lot of dentist work done in the past 2 years but never actually lost a complete tooth so I can't really relate, but I'm rooting for you. Nevermind the money even, just the bone receding is...ouch.

Wise words too. I barely eat any candy anymore these days, and I don't usually even drink soda during the week. And I drink plenty of water. I don't want to end up with a mouth full of crappy teeth by the time I'm 40.

(and no, I don't do meth either )

Ouch that really sucks My fingers will be crossed you don't have to lose that other tooth as well.

blah, I hate dentists. Sorry Peltz. I understand somewhat... my teeth aren't the greatest since I got out of the army so I regularly get work of some sort done on them. No tooth loss or anything major recently, but it still sucks.

Good luck on the jaw. Those are important.

Sorry man, I feel for you. Lets just say the original post caused me to go in after a couple of years. I was not pleased. I have dental insurance but not to much point. I had a filling done to the cost of about $300.00. Not bad, except my insurance paid.... $24.00 of that. I have to go back and have an old filling taken out and replaced with the new material (the one that doesn't ave lead or mercury or whatever) so that will be another $300.00. I was supposed to go tomorrow, but I'm still sick so will have to go some other time.

As for a jaw issue, damn man that shit is no joke. Hope everything turns out OK. /hugs

Why do you even have an insurance when they only pay 10% of your costs? Which reminds me, I gotta pay my social insurance fee some time soon...wouldn't want to run under a tram while I'm not covered.

The easy answer is although not great by any means I pay so little for Dental Insurance that it works out in my benefit still. I think I only pay $5.00 a month for both dental and vision insurance. So, roughly $2.50 a month for the dental, which work out to what, $30.00 a year? So, I am coming out ahead since they paid out so far this year about $150.00. But it just means I paid out a ton out of pocket too.

I see, makes sense. Still a weird system to me though - wouldn't it be easier to pay a slightly bigger insurance fee but also recoup more of your costs later on? But I guess that's all in line with the heavily liberalized services market in the US.

I hate going to the dentist not because of the pain or discomfort (rarely have any) but because of the insane amounts of cash I need to lay down every time, usually around the 100 € mark for general cavities work. I do get back about 90% of that money afterwards through social security, but just the act of withdrawing that much money from my bank account and giving it to my dentist is enough to make me cringe/physically ill.

I'm weird that way.

Trust me, you are not alone with that pain.

US insurance doesn't work that way, but I understand. I don't like raiding my account like that even if I know I'll eventually get the money back. Makes me uncomfortable. It's always easier keeping money in an account than trying to get it back from a third party.

/me has a lack of trust for pretty much anyone

And yes better insurance would be worth it for me but, my company decides all that to offer. So, I can take when they offer, or find my own independant policy. The one on my own would be silly expensive. So, kinda stuck.

Oh well life goes on, at least I have the money, I guess. I am spent so much freaking cash on medical/dental this year it is sad. I have not yet made my annual visit to the eye doctor. That is always a little painful. Although this year I will probably only get new lenses and contacts, not new sunglasses or frames.