Home » Addiction Blog » What the Repeal of the Affordable Care Act Means for Treatment Services

What the Repeal of the Affordable Care Act Means for Treatment Services

Nobody in their right mind prays to be an alcoholic or wakes up one day in hopes of being a junkie. When in active addiction, it’s an unfortunate misery that I wouldn’t wish upon anybody. Yet it happens to unsuspecting human beings every day and the world just keeps turning. Addiction is a terrible monster of a disease that takes a hold of you and squeezes all the life out of you like a tube of toothpaste. It leaves you just lying on the bathroom sink with the cap off and nothing left, but it will be back for more regardless of how much minty life you have left to give. An awful concept- I know. However, although addiction and alcoholism are incurable, there is help out there for we the chemically dependent. There are detoxification and treatment options that can help save lives of thousands of people across the United States. Being an addict or alcoholic shouldn’t have to be a death sentence in the slightest.  Sadly, medical facility options can be expensive and unobtainable for many, but there were options- until recently. The likely repeal of the Affordable Care Act will change the way medical attention and supervision is being handed out in America. With an opiate epidemic and drug plague ever growing in the states, repealing Obamacare seems more detrimental to the health of the people than helpful.

Scared to Lose Insurance?

Congress is currently in the works of repealing the Affordable Care Act with the backing aid of newly elected president Donald Trump. What this means to the world of healthcare, specifically in regards to mental health and addiction is that it’s essentially going to set us back about 8 years almost. The main concern with this time warp is that the numbers in addiction and mental health have grown tremendously in that time span. To break down the Affordable Care Act in simpler terms would be to describe it pretty much as Medicaid. It was a bill passed to help give affordable insurance, through taxation, to United States citizens living in poverty. It was a bill that has helped immeasurable amounts of human beings when push came to shove and illness took over. Addiction and mental disorders can pick any victim they want to despite age, race, gender, creed or any external affiliations. Once again, nobody particularly chooses to be of poor mental health in a conscious manner of sorts- it just kind of happens. With the painkiller and heroin crisis continually dropping people like flies, the Affordable Care Act was just what was needed to help save lives. Now for the record, this has nothing to do with your specific political affiliation or anything like that. There is no typing here with favoritism toward the left or right wing- everything just is what it is as far as this discussion goes. Back to the matter at hand. Obamacare has helped create an extension of medical supervision to those that are not fortunate enough to afford the insurance needed to receive such help in an institution. It has saved thousands upon thousands of addicts and alcoholics lives, but under new policy, we are just going to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pretend like it’s not a necessity in this day of age. We have an overpopulated world in the midst of a drug epidemic and we just took away one of the solutions for people to continue living. Literally taking away life for some people and nobody bats an eye except addicts, alcoholics, and medical personnel. The amount of overdoses and deaths across the country will spread rapidly as soon as the bill is tossed.

insurance

What we’re looking at is without insurance to help pay for the costs of substance abuse treatment and mental health therapy, patients will go without treatment entirely. This, in turn, can be bad not only for the person afflicted but for society as well. Untreated mental disorders can spark episodes of violence or crime depending which aspect of mental health is in question.

Record number overdoses in many major cities doubled between 2015-2016- thus proving that the opiate epidemic, in particular, is growing at a swift pace with the body count ever rising. With more overdoses occurring in 2016, you better believe there were more admits into hospital emergency rooms and detox facilities than 2015 as well. A significant amount of people have been treated in various establishments and institutions in the last several years due to the Affordable Care Act. Say it had not existed- the death toll could be much higher than it already was.

This doesn’t only affect the new addicts and alcoholics springing up to date, but what about the people who have been through the ringer already and depend on a medication to maintain their mental illness? This stabs a knife right into the side of all sorts of people trying to cope with struggling mentalities. Large quantities of people will be unable to afford insurance for regular physician check-ups or prescription medication refills. Millions will be affected. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed and not replaced by another solution of sorts, the casualties will skyrocket while taking away more solutions for those struggling. One way or another, the future outcome of mental health counseling and treatment is hanging in the air. One can only cross their fingers, hope, and in the meantime wait it out.

Help Cannot Be Repealed Entirely

Everything about addiction and alcoholism can be intimidating, but sometimes it takes a lot of courage to rise from the deepest depths of our souls to make a substantial change. This having been said, keep in mind that you are never alone. There are loads of kindred spirits who have struggled themselves and are here to help break things down even further. If you or a loved one is struggling with matters of chemical dependency, please call 1-800-481-8457 or visit oarcstaging.wpengine.com. Our specialists would be thrilled to answer any questions and help direct you to a road that you can confidently and proudly walk down.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content