Self pay - and time off owrk

My story is a little different - my company IS the insurance company. We have less than 10 people working for it. I was told directly by my boss that any type of WLS would NOT be covered - our medical review officer had only approved 1 in the past 3 years. Guess that give you a small idea how i feel about the company. :-( Whats worse it when I have to tell someone that the insurance wont pay for it and they are frustrated. I cant just yell out that I know what you mean - I want the same thing!!! Since it is not an approved leave of absence, I would not get paid while I was out having surgery.  I dont know how I am going to support myself financially with the surgery, and worse, without it.  Does anyone know if any place where you can have money lended to you without having outrageous interest rates?

As for time off:   There's a little federal thing called the "Family and Medical Leave Act."   Even though your company is small and technically doesn not fall under this act (need to have 50 employees or more) - you could still try to use it to obtain the time off for the surgery. Check the details here: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/ HTH Pam