It is time to "Plow Down Medicaid Mountain!"

"Sadly, it is true that our society's response to addiction and mental illness among those who cannot afford private care is woefully inadequate. Moreover, getting help through the criminal justice system is too often slow, mired in bureaucratic inefficiency, and, particularly for those needing mental health treatment, simply not available. For many, this systematic flaw proves fatal." Anonymous

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It is time for us to work together to "Plow Down Medicaid Mountain!"

Patients with Substance Use Disorder who are reliant on Medicaid for financial coverage of their disease's expenses[3] face the requirement of climbing  "Medicaid Mountain."  Many of our nation's daughters and sons fall from and die as they hike in their weakened condition along the high and narrow cliff trails (that do not have guard rails of dignity and respect) that lead to the health care that they need and now want.

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We are encouraging you to submit factual accounts of experiences that you and/or your loved ones have had when trying to receive care at any medical facility in or around Philadelphia, Pa. with Substance Use Disorder (addiction) related issues. 

These stories can be written in an anonymous way using an alias (blog name) for yourself or your loved one.

The story should 

• be factual
• include an actual or approximate date of service and location of service
• include the outcome of your experience.  
• include what happened physically/emotionally/spiritually as a result of this experience
• include what you or your loved one would have preferred to experience as a result of seeking care.

You are encouraged to submit these true accounts to

PlowDownMedicaidMountain@gmail.com. (capitalization of letters is not needed.)

Your email address and any other contact information you may care to share with the leadership of this project will not be shared with others.  A follow-up with you may be needed as we move forward in the process.

If writing is not your style and you would like to participate in this effort, I invite you to contact me (Chris Battin) via the same email address so that we can arrange a time to talk by phone or in person.

In summary, the time of talking and describing the issues getting in the way of prompt and dignity-filled health care to Medicaid-reliant patients with Substance Use Disorder in the absence of addressing those issues and solving them is over.

Please join us on this journey which is only beginning.  We will update this page as this effort moves along.

Improvements in health care to Medicaid-reliant patients with Substance Use Disorder will be made!

Thank you.

Update February 10, 2022

As part of this story-gathering process, we have invited people to write one-liners and short accounts of times when they have not been treated as they should.

Here is a page within this blog site that displays what has been provided thus far.  It is called:

One-Liners and Short Stories in Their Own Writing