Do you capitalize insurance plans such as Short Term Disability?

Answer 1

Generally speaking you would not capitalize short term disability insurance, workers' compensation insurance, and other categories of insurance (just as the New York Times does not).

There are a few exceptions, however.

For example, inside actual insurance contracts many insurance companies use capitalization to signify that it is a specialized term defined elsewhere in the contract. So if you are quoting from such a contract or referring to their term and/or referring to that specialized meaning, then capitalization is certainly appropriate.

Additionally, some argue that when you are referring to a specific short term disability policy (instead of the general class of insurance) that elevates the meaning so capitalization is up to the user. I have seen many employee handbooks, for example, that capitalize it when referring to the firms own policy, and it would not be uncommon to see it written "In the event of a short term disability of four days or longer, please contact your supervisor for a claim form so that a Short Term Disability claim can be filed as quickly as possible." I do not know if that is actually proper, but it is common enough that it could hardly be considered an outright faux pas. Like most things it is probably a matter of personal style.

If you are writing a paper or trying to be formal I would err on the side of restraint and leave it all lower case.