I am glad you put some ideas and options up for those of us who can’t afford the care we need, whether that be a doctor’s care, or the medications that are necessary to control this illness.

I’m also frustrated in general because I am not insured, but I live in a state that only gives medicaid to children, pregnant women and the disabled (as designated by the Fed. gov’t). Obviously, I am glad that my state at least covers these people, but what do I do? There is no way on earth I can take money out of our food bill to pay $300-$400 a month for the medications I am on (our food bills isn’t anywhere near that high!). And the program that Glasco-Smith-Cline offers for free/reduced meds is great, but we literally make $78 too much to receive this help. What am I to do?

For my health and sanity, I need medication. But reality is that I cannot afford it, no matter what I try. This is insanely frustrating and makes me feel all the more helpless to help myself.

I have part D for medicine under Medicare as I am on disability. There are several things that are not good about the system. The first one is that you have to be on SSD for 24 months before you qualify for Medicare and Part D. The other is that with most Part D plans, after around $2000 is paid on medicine the next ~$4000 is your problem to pay. My medications cost between $1200 and $1400 a month so you can see that I hit the donut hole pretty quickly. This year I am lucky because I found a plan that doesn’t have the donut hole but I am saving for the next year because I don’t know that the plan will exist in 2010 as they tend to change every year. I make $200 more a month than is allowed for medicaid which would pay everything for my meds.