Residents drop off Covid-19 PCR tests at a testing site run by the Centers for Disease Control, Federal Emergency Management Agency and eTrueNorth in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2022.
Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
When Christopher Perry got sick in July 2021, he thought he just had a nasty cold.
But after Perry’s adult son found him passed out in his lounge, he was taken to the hospital and placed on life support resulting from Covid-19.
A diagnosis of respiratory lung failure has led to long-term health consequences.
Today, Perry, 44, of Newport News, Virginia, can only walk short distances and gets winded quickly. His difficulty respiratory results in trips to the emergency room a minimum of once per week.
“I start breaking down crying and might’t catch my breath,” Perry said.
His weight, blood pressure and sugar levels have climbed, requiring medication. He also receives respiratory treatments and oxygen.
“That is all they’ll really do,” Perry said.
Perry’s condition has made it unimaginable to resume his former full-time work at a NASA steam plant, where he used to climb ladders and maintain boilers.
Initially, he was in a position to obtain short-term after which long-term disability insurance through his employer. Today, after a “very long tedious process,” Perry relies exclusively on Social Security disability advantages for income, with monthly checks of about $1,600 per thirty days.
“I didn’t know Covid would do all this,” Perry said.
To this point, the Social Security Administration has flagged about 44,000 disability claims that include some mention of Covid-19, though that will not be necessarily the first reason for those applications. That represents nearly 1% of disability applications received because the agency began tracking those claims.
Yet it is feasible that future disability profit applications resulting from long Covid may increase.
Applying for federal advantages can take months
As much as 30% of Americans who get Covid have developed long-haul symptoms, affecting as many as 23 million people, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Long Covid has put an estimated 2 million to 4 million Americans ages 18 to 65 out of labor, in line with recent research from the Brookings Institution. Those lost wages may add as much as around $170 billion per 12 months, and potentially as much as $230 billion, the nonprofit public policy organization estimates.
To make up for the lost income, patients typically pursue short- or long-term disability insurance, in the event that they have already got coverage.
Those whose condition is anticipated to stop them from working for a minimum of 12 months or end in death may pursue advantages through either Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income.
Social Security disability advantages are generally available to employees who’ve earned enough credits through payroll taxes — typically 40 credits, though younger employees may qualify with less. In 2023, one credit is the same as $1,640 in wages or self-employment income.
Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, is a federal profit available to disabled individuals who may not qualify for Social Security disability based on their work records.
The typical wait time for Social Security initial disability decisions has increased in the course of the pandemic, climbing to an all-time high of 6.6 months in August, in line with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Greater than 1 million disability claims are pending at state disability determination services.
The method for applying for federal disability advantages is lengthy. That has put some patients with no other available source of income in a desperate financial situation, in line with Andrew Wylam, a lawyer and president of Pandemic Patients, a nonprofit patient-advocacy organization dedicated to helping Covid patients get the services they need.
“Some persons are holding on with their only hope of getting SSDI advantages, and that is a six-, eight- or 12-month process,” Wylam said.
Within the interim, Wylam has seen those patients exhaust their life savings, money out their investments and liquidate their property as they hold on to hope Social Security disability advantages will eventually be available to assist them stay afloat.
“It’s totally demoralizing and it’s really heart breaking to see people undergo that situation,” Wylam said.
Applicants aren’t guaranteed success at the top of that wait, either. The “award rate” for disability applications, as measured by the Social Security Administration, averaged 31% between 2011 and 2020. Meanwhile, denied disability claims averaged 67%.
‘Invisible’ symptoms add to difficulty
Allsup, which works with individuals who’re applying for Social Security disability advantages or are appealing their claims, is seeing about 4% to five% of monthly cases related to Covid or long Covid, in line with T.J. Geist, principal advocate at the corporate.
The applications which can be seeing probably the most success involve more severe cases, in line with Geist. Oftentimes, those cases have required hospitalizations and ventilators, and led to long-term significant health ramifications like organ failure.
Allsup, which works with NASA, helped Perry get his Social Security disability advantages application approved.
“Those which can be harder proceed to be those cases which have more invisible long-term symptoms, like fatigue, brain fog, depression,” Geist said.
“And unfortunately, they’re having more difficulty getting approved,” he added.
My advice in those situations could be to make certain your doctor is tracking all your symptoms, documenting them, and has a full patient history on you.
T.J. Geist
principal advocate at Allsup
Those cases can have success, but they take longer, in line with Geist. A call on an initial application may take six to eight months. If it must be appealed, that may take about one other six months. After which, if it goes to a hearing that may take one other 12 months or so.
“It might be as much as three years before a case gets decided at a hearing,” Geist said.
When Perry was applying for Social Security disability advantages, he needed to fill out extensive paperwork that asked every part from how far he could walk without losing his breath as to if he was in a position to cook his own dinner.
The approval took about six months, and certain would have been unimaginable without the assistance of a lawyer, he said.
Careful documentation of health records also helps, especially with the “invisible” symptoms related to long Covid, in line with Geist.
“My advice in those situations could be to make certain your doctor is tracking all your symptoms, documenting them, and has a full patient history on you,” Geist said.
“That may really make or break a Social Security disability case,” he said.
‘No person sees us’
For patients and medical providers, a looming query is how long the illness may last. Social Security disability advantages are aimed toward long-term conditions.
“A number of individuals with long Covid need to work, and what they need are work accommodations,” said Alice Burns, associate director of this system on Medicaid and the uninsured on the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Adele Benes, 57, was in “excellent health” when she was exposed to Covid while working at a Chicago-area hospital in 2020. Now 26 months later, she still suffers from debilitating symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog and cognitive difficulties which have led to frequent trips to the emergency room.
Adele Benes still struggles with symptoms after contracting Covid-19 in 2020.
Courtesy: Adele Benes
To enhance her condition, Benes has tried every part from off-label medical treatments to hypnosis. At times, she has struggled to even just move from her bed to the lavatory and thought the pain and discomfort would kill her.
“The sensation was overwhelming,” Benes said. “How will you feel that bad and never die?”
Benes applied for Social Security disability advantages in February and continues to be waiting to listen to back. But what she wants most is to regain her health and return to her normal life.
She cries when she remembers her former job, where she was in a position to help sick patients as an ultrasound technologist. “It was joy,” she said.
The hardest part may be knowing there is not any cure.
“It is a crazy disease and it’s invisible, because we’re all hiding in our homes,” Benes said. “No person sees us, and we glance normal from the surface.”