Can you go to drug rehab free?  Is there such a thing as free drug rehab?  Is it any good if it is free and does not cost any money to go?

There are some ways that you might go to rehab for “free,” but of course in all cases someone is paying for the treatment, even if the cash does not come directly out of your pocket.  It may be insurance companies or taxpayers, but someone is paying for something if you go to treatment.  The services are not free and in fact they are usually quite expensive.

If you happen to have Medicaid and live in the US, then you can probably attend drug rehab for free.  It is just a matter of calling around and finding out which treatment centers will accept Medicaid.  Now if you happen to have Medicare, that is a different story, and based on what I have seen, Medicare only covers residential treatment but not detox.  So if you are in need of detox and you have Medicare then you might not be able to go to rehab unless you can pay for the detox portion or if you do not need detox.  Now you cannot simply choose to skip detox, if you have been on certain drugs or alcohol before going in, they are going to require detox if it is deemed medically necessary.  So just keep that in mind if you have Medicare and you might want to call some rehabs and find out what their exact policy is on this.

Now another way that drug rehab can be free in some cases is if there is a long term treatment center that is actually set up for homeless people.  There it is funded by taxpayers because they understand that the homeless will not likely have cash or insurance to cover a stay in treatment.  This type of facility will not likely have detox though, so you might be responsible for getting yourself detoxed before you check into a long term place like this.  But the funding is set up differently for transitional housing like this and so you can probably go there for “free” if you meet their qualifications.

If you have good insurance you might be covered for rehab as well, but of course that insurance is not really “free,” you or a family member paid for it either with money or with their work.  But you still might be able to attend rehab without so much as a copay if you get lucky.