Majority of Americans underestimate odds of contracting long COVID
A new survey also suggests almost half are financially unprepared to miss work for three months.
More than two years into the pandemic, most Americans still underestimate the prevalence of long COVID-19, according to a new survey from online insurance marketplace Policygenius. In fact, 61% of survey respondents estimate that long COVID affects up to 20% of the population, while actual studies show it actually impacts 31% of North Americans who have contracted the virus. What’s more, one-third of Americans greatly underestimate the likelihood of the post-viral syndrome, with 27% believing the prevalence is “up to 10%” and 8% believing it is “0%.”
“Long COVID” is the term generally used to describe COVID-19 symptoms that linger for 60 to 90 days or longer after infection or hospitalization.
Related: How are long COVID sufferers coping with work?
“As we enter a new phase of the pandemic, where many people no longer see COVID-19 as a crisis, it’s important to increase awareness of the possible long-term ramifications of contracting the virus,” Logan Sachon, senior managing editor of research at Policygenius, said in a statement. “Long COVID has the potential to last for months or years, and without a safety net like disability insurance, it can be a debilitating event both physically and financially.”
Indeed, the 2022 Policygenius Long COVID Survey also suggests that Americans might be financially unprepared for contracting long COVID. Nearly one in two respondents (44%) said they either don’t know how they would pay for expenses outside of insurance payouts if they were out of work for three or more months, or said that they flat-out couldn’t pay for expenses. This number increased to more than half (54%) for people making less than $40,000.
“Every single person in this country is at risk for long COVID,” Alison Sbrana, a board member of the Body Politic COVID-19 Support Group, noted in the report. “You do not know if you will get it or not. If there was a 30% chance that if I got in my car today I would be disabled on the way to the grocery store, would I get into my car? That is the risk.”
Insurance-related issues abound
Here are three other highlights of the survey, which was published May 24:
- More than one-third (35%) of respondents don’t know what kind of insurance they would be able to use to pay for expenses if they were to get long COVID or another chronic illness for longer than three months.
- One-fifth (21%) of respondents think they would be able to use unemployment insurance or workers’ compensation if they contracted long COVID. However, these types of insurance likely wouldn’t be available to them, according to the report’s authors. Unemployment insurance is only available if the individual is available to work, and workers’ comp may be available to some health care workers who contract COVID-19 but is unlikely to pay out for most people, Policygenius reports.
- Another one-fifth of respondents (18%) expect to rely on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), for which someone with a condition with no definitive prognosis (like long COVID-19) would only be eligible once they were out of work for one year, according to the report.
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