Try being a person who is disabled, & well under the poverty level. After an auto accident-which was not my fault-the auto insurance cut me off from any income reimbursement or medical after one year.
I lost my job & most of what I owned except for my best instruments. I used up all of my savings, and when the "settlement" came, I owed over $28,000 in medical bills & the settlement was for $25,000 before attorney's fees. I had to file bankruptcy.
It took 3 1/2 years to get on social insecurity disability, after being turned down 3 times of course. When it was finally granted, the "back pay" was half of the actual amount which I should have been given. (congress saves $$ this way, you see) Medicare is a joke-when you have only a soc security check, you cannot afford to go to a Dr as most Drs don't accept it cause it doesn't pay enough to them, not to mention the deductible, so you end up paying for office visits & most of the RXs.
I no longer have the physical abilities I used to have as a professional musician, and I am in terrible pain every day of my life. The drs these days don't think it's a good idea to have me on painkillers all the time, so I have no pain meds. I had to move to a state which offers medicaid to disabled people in order to have medical. With only a few hundred bucks per month, I certainly can't pay for concert tickets, neither am I able to attend music festivals, it is too painful, anyway.   
Over half of the disabled persons in the USA do NOT have medical. Many end up on the streets, having not enough money to live on even if they get a social security disability check. The upper end of the scale is $816 now, of which about $90 is deducted for medicare.
The waiting list for housing where I live is 5-7 years. Then you get into the projects. If you are very lucky, you have a spouse--I do not--or maybe you live with a relative, however this can be very dificult, as they tend to not understand the seriousness of the pain and depression.
During the welfare reform @15 years ago, I was a caseworker for food stamps, aid to families with dependent children (basic welfare), and medicaid. Now I am one of the throwaways of society with no value according to congress, because I cannot work anymore.
Yes, Virginia, poverty does exhist, and there is no Santa Claus.