KEY TAKEAWAYS
Accessing drug and alcohol rehab with no insurance can be achieved via the NHS or local community funding, crowdfunding, or grants from charities [1].
How To Access Rehab Without Insurance
Creative Methods For Self-Funding Rehab
Crowd Funding
Crowdfunding means asking for small amounts of money from multiple private individuals, usually online using a site such as GoFundMe.
This may be beneficial for those who do not have, or do not wish to ask family or friends for money.
Scholarships
Scholarships are funding from a charity or private organisation to pay for addiction treatment, and are available if the provider believes:
Community Fundraising
Community fundraising includes asking friends, family, club, association, or other members of the community to raise money for rehab costs.
Raising money can be achieved by asking for donations, sponsorships, or through fundraising events.
Grants
Grants are non-repayable and are accessed through charities, the NHS, private rehabs and companies.
Examples of providers offering grants include:
Accessing Rehab Without Insurance In Specific Circumstances
Reasons For Seeking | Solution That Enables | Treatment Provider For |
|---|---|---|
Disallowed insurance due to multiple previous treatments/exceeding annual treatment allowance | Directly paying for treatment | Private rehab |
Disallowed due to | Resolution of untreated | NHS or private treatment |
History of chronic relapses | Therapy that resolves underlying issues | Therapy |
Concerns for privacy/confidentiality | Ask rehab admissions team for further options | Private rehab |
Enabling/co-dependency issues | Attending rehab away from the local area and making new social connections | Private, NHS or charity-funded rehab |
Concerns about child custody | Pooling financial assistance from friends and family | Private rehab |
Wanting a greater choice of providers, assessors or treatment plan | Researching reputable | Government, charity or 3rd sector rehab |
Denial or shame about alcoholism | Outpatient support groups | |
Insurance policy has lapsed | Crowdfunding or family funding | Private rehab |
Accessing Part Of A Rehab Programme Without Insurance
Based on our firsthand experience at Abbeycare, health insurance providers often only consider the detox elements of treatment as eligible to be paid through insurance.
This reduces access to addiction treatment when an alcoholic wants to admit to the full rehab programme, but the insurer will only subsidise the detox elements of care.
A possible solution to this is that the insurance providers pay for the cost of the detox elements of treatment, whilst the alcoholic pays for the remaining rehabilitation, therapeutic and aftercare elements of the full rehab programme via other means.
Primary vs Secondary Care Without Insurance
Most insurers will only pay for primary care rehabilitation (a traditional rehab programme) at the point of crisis, and will not pay for secondary care (aftercare).
As patients may discover that they require secondary care after being admitted to a primary care setting, using the funded detox and then paying personally for secondary care needs may be necessary.
Does Accessing Rehab Without Insurance Compromise Programme Quality?
Whether or not a patient has secured funding indirectly or through the creative methods mentioned above does not affect the quality of care from a rehab programme.
However, quality of care may change based on whether accessing treatment without insurance has meant that the nature of the treatment has had to be changed.
Standard | Reasons For Seeking Rehab Without Insurance | Differences |
|---|---|---|
Care planning | Wanting a greater choice of providers, assessors or treatment plan | Care plan restricted to one |
Detox | Disallowed treatment via insurance due to multiple treatments or exceeding annual treatment allowance | Accessing detox via the |
Rehab | Concerns about child custody | Restricted communication |
Therapy | Concerns about confidentiality/privacy | Inability to access group |
Aftercare | Resolving enabling or co-dependency | Not able to access local |
CBT or DBT | Denial or shame about addiction | Not engaging in treatment |
What Accessing Rehab Without Insurance Does NOT Replace
Accessing rehab through insurance provides access to psychiatric assessment for the purpose of admission, taking into account any:
The psychiatric assessment is only used for admission purposes, and no other aspects of rehab treatment differ between insured and non-insured patients.
Resources
Alcoholics Anonymous
Call 0800 9177650
Contact via email at help@aamail.org
Find a local meeting via alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk [6]
Salvation Army
Call (020) 73674500
Contact via email at info@salvationarmy.org.uk
Find a local Salvation Army at salvationarmy.org.uk/map-page [7]
Betel UK
Call 01215940650
Contact via email at info@betel.co.uk
Find a local Betel UK centre at betel.uk/contact-us/ [8]
Crowd Funding Websites
Crowdfunder UK [11]
Kickstarter [12]
Grants And Scholarships
The Henry Smith Charity [13]
The National Lottery Community Fund [14]
The Garfield Weston Foundation [15]
