Insurance companies do not treat addiction as a disease when in fact it is. It is as serious as cancer if not more serious. When you are a cancer patient you are not denied full treatment, or told you will only be covered for 28 to 30 days of treatment. Just like cancer some people get the disease and some people do not. Changes really need to be made on a case to case basis. If a patient with addiction needs a longer treatment period that treatment should not be denied. It should be left to the professionals who treat addiction to decide how long that particular patient needs to be treated. If you treat the patient with addiction (disease) the right way from the start, our government and insurance companies will find that they will be saving money. It is the trickle down effect...Addicts who decide to get treatment are most likely unemployed, which means going to the government is the only option to get health insurance. Then you have the long term physical health problems that occurs from destroying the addicts organs. So in turn insurance companies are footing the bill, or our government. When in fact all of this could have been avoided from the start by treating it as a real disease from the start. It is a win win situation for all parties involved. Lastly it will put drug dealers and Pharmaceutical companies who get rich from supplying narcotics out of business. It is crucial not only to the addicts, but the families who also suffer. PLEASE I beg of you to help me make this a priority. It is time we fight to make some changes.
