Jesus, and I thought I had a bad few weeks…

John Cole at Balloon Juice has been trying to get into a rehab facility for alcohol.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with addiction and get treatment in America? I have gold plated insurance, am comfortably middle class, and I have been going through sheer hell trying to get into a facility. It’s almost like you have to show up with a syringe full of heroin dangling from your arm and a crack pipe in your mouth to get anyone to take you seriously.

A while back, I went to my general practitioner and tried to get into a rehab facility. He was caught off guard and sent me to some place which was basically a level 4 detox facility (this meant nothing to me when I was first told it). Regardless, I had made the plans, packed my bags, gone to go be admitted, and the doctor there told me there was no way in hell he was admitting me because this was a place for court ordered detox of people who were in a far different place than me, criminal, and basically the people drinking MD under a bridge for 30 years or smoking crack rock and holding people up at gas stations. Basically, he told me that under no circumstances was this the place for me. I’d set aside the time for work. Showed up, got rejected.

Spent another couple months trying to get a place that was right, covered by insurance, and amenable to my time schedule. Found a place in Ft. Myers, Florida, and was getting ready to go, but then they flaked out on me and would never send me proof that my insurance would cover it. I’m not jumping into that kind of scam, especially in Rick Scott’s Florida. Not to mention, I sweat in a meat locker, and Ft. Myers in July sounds like my own personal hell.

So then I just said fuck it. I’m just going with the VA, even though I have private insurance. It’s close, veterans (who bitch more than anyone on the planet) consistently rate their care at the VA higher than civilians rate their hospital experiences, plus there would be a comfort level there because I was around folks I understand. Spent a couple days making arrangements with people at the VA in Pitt, they told me what to bring, packed everything up, and went, thinking I was making a big step.

Guess what. In 2003, under our favorite President, for whom I voted twice, they changed the rules of eligibility. Because I am comfortably middle class and have a retirement account, even though I am a veteran with a combat patch, I am not eligible because I have too much money. At this point, I’m just like, you have to be fucking shitting me.