Selma Blair and Our Culture of Disability Disbelief By Cassie Springer Ayeni
Selma Blair walked the red carpet at the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party – a vision of radiant beauty sporting a dazzling cane. She then delivered a powerful interview on Good Morning America discussing her Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis, a disease of the central nervous system that can cause pain, fatigue, and problems with balance and muscle control, among others. Her presence and determination shined through, reminding me of many of my clients who battle through horrific symptoms to keep working as long as possible, only to be disbelieved by a disability insurance company when they finally need to stop working.
Ms. Blair called MS the “snowflake disease because it’s different – like a fingerprint – for everyone. Not one size fits all.” She also noted that although she has battled MS for years, including with its current manifestation of spasmodic dysphonia – affecting her speech – that “it can be very different in a year, for the better.” The fluctuating symptoms of diseases like MS often make it difficult for a disability insurer to grapple with the notion of disability. Disability insurers like to operate in extremes: either you are totally disabled or you are not; either you can never run an errand or you’re capable of full-time work. It is quite a task to help an insurer know that there are “good days” and “bad days” with many illnesses. Declarations can be extremely useful to provide accounts of symptoms, but insurers tend to dismiss or ignore these probative statements altogether, relying almost exclusively on the medical records reviewers they hire, who have never even met the claimant. One court recently acknowledged the importance of declarations and letters from colleagues and friends, noting that although they “are not medical professionals and do not have the medical training necessary to provide a medical opinion regarding Laurie’s functional capacity, they are arguably in the best position to substantiate Laurie’s subjective complaints. United should not have dismissed them without discussion, and it was an abuse of discretion to do so.” Laurie v. United of Omaha Life Ins. Co., 2017 WL 975947, at *20 (D. Or. Jan. 23, 2017), report and recommendation adopted, 2017 WL 970262 (D. Or. Mar. 13, 2017).
GMA’s interviewer, Robin Roberts, reports that even Ms. Blair’s own doctors did not take her complaints seriously prior to her diagnosis, but attributed her complaints of pain and exhaustion to being a single mother or hormones. She asked for an MRI, but doctors dismissed her request as unnecessary. Yet her exhaustion was overwhelming: “I’d drop my son off at school a mile away and before I got home I’d have to pull over and take a nap.” But Ms. Blair told her doctors “I need to go to work, and I have to stay awake.” After years of symptoms, it finally took Ms. Blair falling in front of a doctor before she received her diagnosis. Ms. Blair has continued working as an actor all these years, noting “I’m still an actress! Mama’s still got to bring home the bacon, people! I’m a single mom!”
Ms. Blair’s narrative aligns with the experience of many of my clients: they fight through symptoms to keep working, fight to get a diagnosis, then fight with an insurance company to receive benefits. It is overwhelming and exhausting. And it is my privilege to take on the insurance companies on my clients’ behalf.
