What a train wreck.

As many of you know, I'm a social worker at a public mental health center. I work with a number of low-income people on Social Security Disability or retirement benefits, and am trying to help them navigate their Part D options. It is a nightmare. And when people have both serious physical and mental health problems, it is very difficult to find a plan that covers all of their medicines. These are not people who can pay out of pocket. The total monthly cost of medicines for some severe and persistently mentally ill individuals is right around $1000 a month.

More and more I see people leading "lives of quiet desparation" because of the continuing desintegration of the social safety net. This is just another piece of it unravelling.

Janie