Trapped in America's Safety Net

In the early days, we had so many questions about Marcella’s eligibility for various programs. Medicare? No. Medi-Cal? Yes. SSDI? No. SSI? Yes. IHSS—what’s that? I thought Dave’s head would explode. It was impossible for any single person, even nondisabled, to navigate the entire, immensely complicated system alone. Marcella’s sister and sister-in-law divvied up the programs, got permission to act as her proxy, and began figuring everything out.