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Step 5: Health Care Costs. Drug and alcohol users aren’t known for their healthy lifestyles. In fact, they are far less likely to exercise and eat right. They can develop high blood pressure and all sorts of other physical ailments. They are more prone to accidents and disease including serious liver problems. As a result, they may have higher health costs and may need hospitalization and costly medications . Step 6: Job Loss. Employers don’t want drug users or alcohol abusers on the payroll. They are a risk and a potential liability. They can lead to additional costs in the form of health care claims, especially disability claims. Most employers have a zero tolerance policy toward drug use. Many include random drug testing as a condition of employment . A one time use of marijuana can stay in your system for 5-8 days and cause you to lose a job even if you are just a weekend partier. Most employers these days also have a no-drinking-on-the-job policy . If an employee fails a drug test or drinks on the job, they can be fired. Being fired for drinking on the job or failing a drug test makes getting a new job very difficult , because the reason for dismissal will appear on the employee’s record and will be disclosed when a prospective employer checks references. If not, a job application or job interviewer will most likely ask “Why did you leave your last job?” or “Have you ever failed a drug test?” If you lie, you can be fired when they find out the truth. Step 7: Bad credit scores. Late and missed credit card payments and high credit card balances severely impact the user’s credit score. A bad credit score can cause all sorts of financial problems from the inability to obtain credit to the inability to rent an apartment or find housing. Eventually, severely addicted people can end up homeless, or struggling to find housing for themselves or their family. Moreover, it is a long slow process to repair credit. Even if a user manages to recover from their addiction, they face many years of financial struggle to regain lost creditworthiness. Reflect on Learning: Imagine you are a business owner. What is the impact on productivity of a drug using or drinking employee — even if they are not using on the job? If you were an employer, would you hire someone whom you know to be even a weekend partier? Is the prospect of random on-the-job drug testing a deterrent to drug use? Rehab Costs. It’s a beautiful thing when someone addicted to alcohol or drugs chooses to enter rehab. Rehab is short for rehabilitation which is a medically supervised course of treatment for overcoming drug or alcohol addiction . Rehab programs can be inpatient which means the person checks into the rehab facility for intensive therapy and stays at the facility for the entire length of the program — anywhere from 28 to 90 days. There are also outpatient programs where the person stays at home but checks in every day with an addiction specialist. Rehab programs are expensive. The price for a 28 day inpatient stay averages about $25,000. Outpatient programs are less expensive. Most health insurance policies do not cover 100% of rehab costs. Unfortunately, the high cost of rehab discourages many people from seeking treatment. Add to these problems the fact that by the time many addicts decide to seek treatment, they have already lost their job and healthcare benefits . There are however, rehab facilities offering sliding scale fees to those who are unable to pay out-of-pocket, and charity and federally funded programs that can assist with the costs. Regardless, the short term cost of rehab is substantially less than the long term cost of addiction . If successful, rehab can stop the downward spiral into financial ruin. PRODUCT PREVIEW
Chapter 17 | How to Lose It All 334
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