the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 2, 2024
Twenty-nine million people ages 12 and older (10.2% of this age group) had alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the past year, according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Every day, 385 Americans die as a result of excessive alcohol use. Alcohol abuse is not an individual, moral failure, but a societal failure. As society crumbles, people continue to turn to drugs and alcohol to escape.
It is common to hear “help is available.” But if and when someone decides to seek help, knowing where to turn isn’t so obvious. The first thing listed on Google when searching anything related to having an alcohol problem is the “988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline.” Many with AUD may feel that this does not apply to them. It may even frighten them, ending their search right there. After the hotline link is a list of sponsored private rehab facilities that cost big money and know-how to get into. One listing near the top clearly states “NO MEDICAID” in the heading—just to be clear, don’t ask! Help might be available if you have money, but if not, good luck.
People with the wherewithal to keep at it, or more likely, friends or family willing to help, will learn, after several phone calls, that in order to get into any rehab program they must first go to the emergency room for a psych evaluation. But not just any E.R. They will need to find an E.R. that provides this service AND accepts their insurance, if they have any.
So long as the person isn’t posing an imminent danger to themselves, they are considered low priority in an E.R., meaning they’ll have to wait. Anyone who has ever been to an E.R. knows that this can take hours! Those with enough willpower (and more likely, support) to make it through the waiting room will find out that the psych evaluation can’t be performed if they have alcohol in their system. They will be ushered into a detox program. After detox, and if the psych evaluation shows they are fit for rehab, they will be allowed to enter a program. Each one of these steps has a different set of requirements and accepts and denies different insurances. People often have to bounce between different hospitals and facilities because, even though the hospital accepted their insurance for detox, it doesn’t accept it for rehab.
Medicaid is available for people with extremely low incomes, but as seen in this listing, the quantity and quality of services available are limited. The uninsured must be ready to pay whatever the cost may be, and private insurance still comes with unknown copays and deductibles.
Even when help is technically available, there are insurance qualifications and paywalls blocking people every step of the way. People who can’t blindly accept to pay bills that may range from hundreds to more than tens of thousands of dollars, can’t proceed with getting help. The hoops people have to jump through to avoid bills they can’t afford for medical care they desperately need are pitiful.
On top of all of this, the majority of working-class people would lose their jobs and insurance if they missed work for a 28 day rehab program. Then what? They get out of rehab jobless and a month or more behind on bills? If something was going to drive someone to drink, that’d do it!