Is Asthma a Disability? Tips from Michigan Disability Lawyers.
Severe asthma attacks can stop you from doing anything. Certainly they can stop you from working and making a living.
But is asthma a disability that Social Security recognizes when it awards Social Security Disability benefits? This, after all, could be crucial financial relief that helps you live better when you have an exhausting lung condition.
To qualify for disability benefits, you must be unable to work. The challenge with asthma is that millions of people have it—20 million American adults according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—and millions can manage their cases and continue working.
Social Security denies people for benefits all the time, so you must prove that your asthmatic condition is so severe that it rules out working almost any amount at all.
Talk to the Ohio and Michigan disability lawyers at Levine Benjamin Law Firm to find out how you might prove your disability claim for asthma and reach a more secure situation in life.
Levine Benjamin wins more disability benefits for people than any other law firm in Michigan, according to Social Security rankings. We’ve helped over 80,000 people in Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Toledo, and across Michigan and Ohio.
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What Do You Need to Get Asthma Disability Benefits?
When it evaluates your disability application for asthma, Social Security looks for hard evidence that your breathing difficulties are truly debilitating.
These kinds of medical evidence support your claim for asthma disability benefits:
- Forced Expiratory Volume Breathing Test (FEV1): how strongly you can blow into a tube
- Forced Vital Capacity Breathing Test (FVC): also using “spirometry,” or breathing into a tube
- Lung Diffusion Testing (DLCO): a measurement of your lung’s ability to transfer gases.
- Need for intravenous bronchodilator treatment, inhalers or antibiotics: documentation confirming your medical needs
- Asthma attacks that last a day or longer: medical reports confirming the duration of your attacks
- Attacks that happen at least every two months, or six times a year: documentation of the occurrences
- Attacks severe enough to need a doctor’s attention: records from your medical visits
- Attacks that happen despite your treatment: comparing your attacks with your treatment course
You can find out more about whether your individual case of asthma is limiting enough to give you strong case for Social Security Disability benefits by having a conversation with the Levine Benjamin disability law team free of charges or obligations.
Symptoms to Document for an Asthma Disability Claim
In all the doctors’ reports and medical records you send Social Security, they’ll be looking for the ways your symptoms of asthma block you from working.
Make sure to provide a clear picture of all the ways asthma affects you, including:
- Anxiety
- Chest and neck tightness
- Coughing
- Fingers and lips turning blue
- Rapid breathing
And explain the circumstances when an asthma attack can hit:
- Air pollution
- Allergens in the air
- Chemical exposure
- Cold weather
- Emotional distress
- Infections
- Physical exertion
- Reaction to medicines
- Smoky air
When your energy is sapped thanks to severe asthma, having to build a full-on legal case out of your health status seems overwhelming.
An experienced Social Security Disability lawyer takes the pressure off. Levine Benjamin disability attorneys can help you put together the right information in the right way for your disability case.
You pay no attorney fee until you win benefits. And with benefits, you can get a break from the stress and take the best care of yourself.