The morning rush at my Middlesex County pharmacy always brings a parade of familiar faces—the construction worker grabbing antihistamines before heading to a job site, the teacher picking up her asthma inhaler, the commuter refilling blood pressure meds before catching the train to Manhattan. After twenty years behind this counter, I’ve come to recognize the…
The thick envelope arrived in Margaret’s mailbox last October—that familiar annual package of Medicare information that somehow seems to grow heavier each year. As she spread the contents across her kitchen table in her Montclair home, the feeling of overwhelm was immediate. Plan changes, new premium rates, formulary adjustments—the healthcare equivalent of reading another language.…