Antiderivative:
I agree that it really doesn't matter what you call it. Or even what "causes" it, except as the answer to that might reflect on the major concern, namely, "now that you have it, whatever it is, what are you going to do about it?" If the "disease" concept implies just sitting back and letting the doctors take care of it, like measles or mumps, then my own experience is that I spent forty years doing just that until I finally hit a doctor who said, "We're going to help you but you've got to help us if you ever want to get out of this and, to do that, we strongly suggest that you seek the help of other alcoholics." So I tried AA and had many problems with it, finally ending up in an agnostics group, although I'm not an agnostic or atheist. This really helped me and I haven't had a drink in nearly 24 years. So my experience is that whatever "it" is, or whatever its "cause" or "causes", the primary way out is to seek the help of other alcoholics, whether through AA or some other support program.
Finally, I don't have any problem with doctors classifying this so that it is covered by insurance. The first and only time I ever went to a rehab it was covered by insurance, and that paid out $15,000 by the time the dust settled. For the first time I had an excellent doctor and fine staff advice. I have no problem with that at all. I only wish that folks today could get the equivalent of $15,000 insurance coverage to go to a rehab. But the sorry thing is that so much of this is today done on an outpatient basis. I talked with one nurse and she said that, "unless a person is about to have DT's or a seizure, we give them 30 Xanax, send them home and tell them "not to drink"." If they keep them in the hospital for a few days and then release them that's called in the trade a "spin dry". That was my speciality in the old days, the "spin dry". It spun me around and got me nowhere.
Popping them out the door with thirty Xanax is a little like saying to the guy who comes in with a revolver, "here are some more bullets but be careful, don't shoot yourself!" Reminds me of the doctor who gave me an open (perpetually refillable) prescription for chloral hydrate (in liquid form, possibly a suspension with alcoholic content) (that was in 1958) or the one who prescribed me for seconal (to get to sleep) and sodium amytal (to stay asleep)(that was in 1962). That was outpatient treatment in the old days!
W.