Ira Glass talks with Planet Money reporter, Chana Joffe-Walt, about Hale County, Alabama — a place where one fourth of working age adults are on disability. That means the government has determined that due to a health issue, 25 percent of the adults in Hale County are unable to work, qualifying them for monthly payments and health care coverage.

I am regularly exposed to people who are "waiting to get on the disability". It's a difficult discussion. It's easy to quickly judge some one by looking at them and thing "You're not disabled". But not all disabilities are visible. Not all disabilities are debilitating all the time. So maybe it's hard to judge.

Some people ought to be on disability. Others, not so much.


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