Long COVID can happen in anyone who's had COVID-19, regardless of how sick you were at the time or your age. It's a broad, general term for the debilitating illness that lingers far past your initial COVID-19 infection, with chronic symptoms including anything from fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, to organ damage.
Not everyone who is a COVID "long hauler" will be able to qualify for disability insurance. Still, if you believe your symptoms are significantly impacting your life or your ability to work, there are some things you should know to make your case.
To help us understand some of the standards when it comes to disability benefits, Barbara Zabawa, attorney and clinical assistant professor at UW-Milwaukee, answers questions you may have.
If someone is suffering from long COVID, when and how should they claim it as a disability?
Zabawa says that first, one would need to identify what major life activities they cannot perform because of long COVID. She says major life activities include taking care of yourself, performing manual tasks, or learning. "If you've experienced these things as a result of long COVID, then you need to get some medical justification. Essentially, some sort of proof that it is long COVID that is so limiting for you to do these major life activities. Once you have that, then you can file a claim," says Zabawa.
Do people need to reapply and reassess annually to determine if their long COVID is a disability?
Zabawa says this annual consideration after someone receives benefits will depend on whether they're getting benefits through the social security administration or their employer. "The policy will dictate how often you need to renew, apply, or confirm that you're still disabled. They'll give you the guidelines as to what you need to do to continue collecting benefits," say Zabawa.
What's important for employers who have vaccine mandates to know in regards to disability law?
No federal laws require employers to have vaccine mandates, Zabawa points out. "Employers can decide for themselves based on their employee population, based on their beliefs, and based on their needs of the workforce and their customers whether to have a vaccine mandate policy in their workplace, or not," says Zabawa.
For people working essential jobs that place them at risk, what's the difference between workers' compensation compared to claiming disability?
"Presumably, if someone contracts COVID because of something they were required to do at work, they could make a workers compensation claim to get their medical bills and stuff paid for. The trouble with COVID is being able to trace it to it happening because of work versus because of something you did on your own," says Zabawa.
What's a word of advice for someone with long COVID symptoms?
It's important to know that you're not alone, says Zabawa. Claiming COVID as a disability is new. "There are cases where people have successfully sought assistance, even with something that other people couldn't understand or it was difficult to prove. It has happened and to look to those cases where it's been successful, to try to replicate what worked, if that's what you need in order to function and move forward from this pandemic," says Zabawa.
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