Actually frank federal employees do NOT have a short term disability program and the closest to long term is disability retirement.
We might be thinking of oranges and apples here, madam.
Governmental employees get all sorts of "offers" for this thing and that thing, provided they pay for it.
One gets life insurance, usually 100% paid for by the taxpayers, and medical insurance, which cost is shared between the bureaucrat and the taxpayers.
But then there's things available only to a specified group of employees (such as governmental employees) which, if an individual wants it, he has to pay for it. I dunno if it's still done or not, but there was a time governmental employees had access to lower automotive insurance rates than the general public through one company or another, and of course, yes, the individual had to pay the cost himself.
I've been both a state and federal employee--thank God not a lifer, as governmental employment (as compared with private employment) is the absolute
worst thing a "handicapped" individual should undertake--and in both instances the "benefit package," or folder with brochures, included short-term and long-term disability insurance--again, which the individual had to pay 100% of the cost.
This was a "deal" because non-governmental employees, or governmental employees outside a specified group, had no access to such plans, whose main advantage was their dirt-cheapness.
The last one I recall was in 1996, when I was offered long-term disability--optional, and I would have to pay for it--at the cost of $1.25 a month.
I myself never took any of it, because the rates seemed so low--pocket-change per month--it was obvious the likelihood of one having to use it was nil to nothing, and I could think of better ways to spend pocket change.
But that's just me; Big Bertha's "wife," like Skippy or Hypertensive Bob, are obviously the sorts out to grab what they can, as much as they can, and as quickly as they can.
