I have been fighting tooth and nail to get my AH husband admitted to detox/residential treatment for the past few days. We have no insurance. Any facility that accepts patients w/o insurance offers a limited number of beds to those patients. I am on waiting lists in every city in FL and have even headed into AL and LA. Nothing. Nothing. He was hospitalized on Wednesday night with a BAC of .387. An addiction counselor came to visit him and put him on her waiting list. What do you think he did that very same afternoon he was discharged? And all morning and afternoon today? I realize you can't expect something for nothing, but this is crazy. We had to borrow almost $10,000 for his last residential treatment - He was released a week ago today and relapsed within 24 hours of discharge. We didn't have the money to continue treatment. $10,000 = 10 days. When we did have insurance, that included 30 days of CD inpatient treatment per calander year, we could not get authroization for the treatment. He was hospitalized 2x in the same month with crazy high BACs, the Medical Director of the hospital wrote a letter to the HMO requesting authorization for treatment deeming it medically necessary. We got an MD to write a letter! Response from HMO: DENIED. Go to AA they said. Seriously. He was/is drinking vodka from sun up till sun down. I asked them if our benefits covered a liver transplant.
The portion of that documentary about insurance and the parents/loved ones holding pictures of their family members who were denied treatment and ultimately died from their addiction...I was crying, screaming and swearing all at the same time. 43% of patients willing to seek treatment for their addiction are denied access to treatment because they don't have insurance or can't afford their co-pay! Sad. Sad. Sad.