To disabled, wait for aid can be fatal

This interesting article appeared in the Chicago Tribune. (Requires registration).

Lucy Goodlow hurts every day. It's a sharp pain that slashes across her lower back and down through her left leg, like a knife. It's the kind of pain that makes it hard to concentrate, difficult to sit, stand or walk--and impossible to work.

Because this pain wouldn't go away, Goodlow lost a longtime job.

Because she couldn't work, she stopped getting health benefits.

And with no insurance, it's been months since Goodlow has had physical therapy or an injection of pain medicine. There's no money for that now.

Goodlow is among millions of disabled adults who find themselves acutely vulnerable when their health fails. Ejected from the workforce, stripped of health benefits, snared in the bureaucracy of government programs, they are least able to get help at the time they most need it.

My suggestion to Ms. Goodlow is that she meet with an attorney qualified to handle Social Security Disabilty cases, who can help her get through the bureaucracy and paperwork.