It is a tough situation in my opinion. If you are not elligible for cobra for whatever reason, the patient assistance program probably won't accept you until next tax season if you can prove your income is below poverty level. So for a single person, you would have to make under 20,000 or something similar. Since your family brought in income and your taxes probably showed more than 20k last year, you may not be able to participate right now. That happened to me in 2007, I made slightly too much money to participate and I had to wait until the new tax year to try again.
This is from Proctor & Gamble's PAP application:
Attach a copy of last year’s tax return or other records for proof of income. Some examples are IRS Forms 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, W2 and 1099 Social Security Statement. If you did not file a tax return, please attach an IRS Form 4506-T, which shows that you did not file. http://www.pgpharma.com/patient_assistance.shtml
Some manufacturers don't require proof of income, I am not sure about the makers of Lialda but P&G was pretty strict.
If you can't get into a program, I recommend ordering from Canada. I have ordered there and gotten great prices. Way better than we pay in the US. You may also have to consider switching to Asacol or a less expensive drug that has the same benefits. I hope you can get Cobra or into one of these programs. They should really accept people based on the fact that they lost their income. It's not fair to make people wait until they can provide tax forms as proof. Takes too long!