Question by Angie: Will medicaid pay for alcohol rehab in Utah?
If you had a brother, sister, son, or daughter that needs help. Would you do anything you could to help them? This is a disease!

Best answer:

Answer by raysny
No. Although alcoholism is considered a disease by some, it is treated as a behavior by the government.

http://askjan.org/media/alcohol.html#ADA

Most rehabs are 12step-based, based on AA. Rehabs have a slightly better success rate than Alcoholics Anonymous which is estimated to be about 5%, the same as no treatment at all. People who fail in AA and 12step facilitation tend to fall harder than those who were not exposed to 12step treatment, which teaches people they are powerless to do anything about their addiction, that even God cannot cure alcoholism, only grant a daily reprieve from the desire to drink.

Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters85.html

What works? A summary of alcohol treatment research:
http://www.behaviortherapy.com/whatworks.htm

“About 75 percent of persons who recover from alcohol dependence do so without seeking any kind of help, including specialty alcohol (rehab) programs and AA. Only 13 percent of people with alcohol dependence ever receive specialty alcohol treatment.”
Alcoholism Isn’t What It Used To Be:
http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/features/alcoholism.aspx

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