epskie

I'm just sitting here reading some posts from people who are feeling desperate in U.S.A, it must be so hard to have to factor health insurance into your recovery over there? I've never really thought about it until tonight - we are pretty lucky over here in the U.K where we don't have to take that into consideration!

Sometimes you just take too much for granted.....

JohnnyDetox

I've thought the very same thing. A simple trip to the ER costs large from the sounds of it.

eh1988

Yes, health insurance is a B**** over here but I'll just stop there before getting too political with it.

sissy07

epskie,

Yeah, the health care/insurance situation over here is hopefully on the mend, we will see.

The thing that bothers me most about health insurance coverage is that mental illness is still not treated equally to physical illness. What is not realized by many is that mental illness is every bit as serious as physical illness. In some degree it is worse....if you don't think straight what is left?

I hope things change...depression,alcoholism, etc. has ruined (or adversely affected) many, many lives.

epskie

Definitely don't want to start a political debate, but we do take the NHS for granted over here. I for one feel lucky that part of my addiction is not dictated to by finances. Sometimes you don't realise what you should be grateful for.....

Sometime

Yep, it costs us £billions per year in taxes and it ain't perfect but it's free....

sissy07

Wait a minute....you mean substance abuse treatment is free in Canada and Europe? I didn't know that.

When I went to rehab a long time ago, something I saw has really stuck with me. There was a young girl in the same rehab, who after 7 days was told she would have to leave because her insurance did not cover any additional days. I still remember her crying and crying....saying she needs to stay longer, that she can't hit the streets again yet. I often wonder what happened to her...she looked like she was close to dying and they discharged her against her will. I noticed that however long your insurance covered is how long they thought you should stay there...that sucks.

sugarbear1

Is this the same health insurance as in Essex? Someone may need to let PaddyB know!

Luweez

The Canadian government pays for anorexics and bulemics to go down to the states for treatment even. We are lucky up here that these things aren't a hindrance to recovery

Scolova

What's really bad, even if it was free... I was such a nutcase I'd have to been dragged into treatment. As stated above addiction and mental illness is viewed by many here as a personal choice and belittled next to visible injuries. I've gotten this far (5 months) on my own and I now take great pride in myself for it, but something needs to change here with the costs being outrageous and some hospitals still not being able to pay their bills\shut down.

Firehazard

Been very fortunate being a U.S. veteran of the Navy. i use the veterans hospital for illness and was ushered through thier treatment center.

I guess I can forgive them for allowing me to drink on post at age 18 , three years under legal drinking age here.

jv369

my experience in vancouver is that medical detox is covered by medicare, but a stay in a rehab or recovery house may cost money if you have money. although if you come in jobless social services will pay for it, which is what happened to me.

i think i went to detox like 7 times and spent like 6 months in a recovery house, didn't cost me a dime. i certainly am grateful for our universal healthcare up here.

DesertEyes

Pardon me for jumping in

Health insurance is a topic very dear to me, so I will start by sharing my bias.

I live in the USA. Some years ago my ex-wife became terribly ill. She was getting slowly worse, and became terribly depressed. A young pharmacist walked into the District Attorney's office and revealed that the HMO had been dispensing expired chemo meds.

* HMO = Health Maintenance Organization. They are large corporations that provide both insurance as well as the hospitals and doctors that get paid thru that insurance *

Took my ex to a different facilty and in a matter of weeks she was back to normal. It's been about 8 years since and she's doing fine.

Yours truly now has some serious medical conditions. Several, actually, and I am not sure how many of them are considered separate and how many are considered one package. In any case, I have at least two terminal diseases. The medications that enable me to have a relatively good life, and allow me to have a simple desk job are horribly expensive. Without insurance I would be stuck in a long-term care facility, permanently disabled, on a bed, costing the taxpayer huge amounts of money for many years until my vegetative body finally passed.

I was hospitalized at Mayo in 2005. Spent a month in the hospital. During the middle of that lovely "vacation" in "club Med" my insurance company cancelled my policy. I had obtained all the necessary paperwork prior to being admitted. No matter, there is a federal law titled E.R.I.S.A. that allows them to cancel a policy retro-actively. The hospital did not throw me out, as I had good credit, but I will die long before I finish paying off that bill.

The insurance company has, twice so far, sent my doctors a _large_ jar full of amphetamines, another one full of percocets, and approved various other highly addictive drugs for my care. For free.

Besides the fact that those meds are addictive, and my history of alcoholism indicates I should really not have those if I want to live longer than a week or so, the side effects on my current medical condition would kill me. The amphetamines alone would toss my blood pressure into the high side, and along with the aneurysm I have in my brain I would likely die, or become a vegetable, within hours of taking the first pill.

In the USA when your house is on fire the emergency personnel come out and douse the flames. Nobody asks to see your insurance card, they don't care if you have any insurance at all. They simply put out the fire, make sure you are in the care of paramedics, and go home. The fire department, the police, are not profit-making operations. The hospitals and insurance companies are.

Here are some vids on the situation.

Bill Moyers Journal . Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients | PBS
Bill Moyers Journal . Remote Area Medical | PBS

So, having provided my background so you know that I am far from a neutral observer. Here's my personal opinion.

I sobered up in the basement of a church. In a small shelter for the homeless. I ran away from home when I was 12, and by the time I was 17 I was living in a trash dumpster. A priest came by to toss out some garbage, found me, and got me to that shelter. Over the years I have met hundreds of alkies and druggies. Sponsored a few. Some arrive from a "spin dry" recovery center paid for by an insurance company. Others by a "nudge from the judge". Others via a charity that maintains shelters, etc., etc.

Detox requires medical attention. No doubt. But after detox it's a different issue. I have never been able to connect how a person arrives in recovery with the _depth_ of their recovery. As far as I can tell, just like it says in that artsy, old fashioned big book, it's an "inside job". There's peeps I know who never "get it", and peeps who do get it for decades and then go out again and die. How they got to recovery makes no difference.

My experience is that other than the initial detox, insurance paid recovery centers are not much more than a very expensive crash course in the theory of addiction. With, perhaps, access to some good counselors.

What makes any given individual walk away from the juice and clean up their act, and maintain a righteous, decent life, happens _independent_ of the recovery center. It happens inside. The doctors and the shrinks can help, but only _after_ the individual has made that commitment. Once the person has made the commitment, an expensive recovery center is not going to make the commitment any different.

That's my personal opinion. Your mileage may vary

Mike

Terminally Unique

Where do you think the 28 day rehab stint came from? 28 days was the max that insurance would cover, so they maxed it out.

Terminally Unique

I'm curious... how many 'relapses' do they pay for up north?

Personally, while I am in favor of universal health insurance coverage, I do not support spending even a single penny of tax-payer revenue on addiction treatment. Detox, yes, but not treatment.

newleaves2012

I'm all for people getting detox without money being an issue. but I'm not a fan of turning any more of my money over to the government and letting them run healthcare. not trying to get overly political here but they've never shown themselves to be responsible or efficient.

ACT10Npack

If we did have national insurance in the USA, I don't think alcohol/drug recovery relate stuff would be included.

But if you don't have money then you can always file for medcad

wheresthefun

Don't you know, that we in the US know better than the rest of the world, when it comes to... well, everything?

zxcirce

i have over 25k debt from detox, hospitals and rehab from the last 8 months. Yea it's a little screwy over here.

jv369

while i agree with you that getting recovery depends on personal commitment more than the actions of a recovery center, i would not downplay how much a good recovery center can help one along the way.

the one that i went to was a non-profit organization, everyone employed there was a recovered addict. the place also ran their recovery program around the 12 steps and residents attended an AA/NA/CA meeting once a night. it certainly helped me. my pervious 6 times through detox never took because they were just a week drying out with nothing afterwards. i was scared and didn't really like the idea of going to a recovery house, but in the end i am glad i did as it launched me into the rooms of NA/AA and led to 4.5 years of sobriety. i'd likely be dead if i didn't go there.

that said, i did relapse after those 4.5 years so i know that i wasn't doing what i needed to to keep my recovery going.

as far as the money, the place i went to certainly wasn't fancy. it was a collection of 5 houses(regular 2 story houses) and each of us shared a room. i was fed everyday, but nothing fancy. the first phase of 90 days was spend there, and i believe costs around $6-7k per person for those 90 days.

like i said if you have the means to pay for it then you have to pay for it, but those who come off the street can get social services to pay for it. personally i am just fine with this, and still am as a now tax paying member of society. i would much rather have the opportunity exist for people living on the streets to make a better, more productive life for themselves. i know several people who are still clean and living great lives because they got a helping hand.