The Human Cost Of Backlogs

From an Op Ed piece by Fran Quigley in the Indianapolis Star (emphasis added):

Do you know which American minority group experiences poverty at the greatest rate? Hint: It is not an ethnic minority.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that nearly two-thirds of working-age adults stuck in long-term poverty have one or more disabilities. ...

From my own work at Indiana Legal Services, I can rattle off grim examples of clients living in tormenting physical and psychological pain because they cannot afford to buy medicine their physicians have prescribed for them. Others endure years of destitute poverty waiting for a disability hearing to be scheduled in the shamefully backlogged Social Security Administration appeal system.