Get on Medicaid and see if it will pay for Suboxone treatment. If not, go to a Methadone Clinic. When I was on Medicaid I got free transportation to the clinic and back and I didn't have to pay for treatment. When I got off Medicaid, they put me on a sliding scale payment based on my income. I only pay $12 a week for my Methadone now that I have a job and only go once a week.
Exactly. I find it odd, both online and off, that people who are interested in either Buprenorphine or Methadone treatment (though specifically Bupe) won't take the steps available, by the government, insurance companies, drug companies, etc to get their treatment paid for either 100% or at least for the bulk of it. Between the Patient Assistance Program, state health insurance plans which cover either Buprenorphine and/or Methadone, clinics with both drugs available that have a sliding scale or are state run and free to begin with, coupons and discount cards, and so on- it really is pretty easy to get access to free or severely reduced charges for seeing a Buprenorphine provider and for the pills/film strips themselves. It's as easy as filling out a couple forms; printing out a couple coupons and discount cards online; as easy as looking up the location of your nearest Department of Health and Human Services office; as easy as looking up all of the MMT clinics in the area and calling to see which ones have a sliding scale, offer Buprenorphine treatment, whether they're privately run or state run and if they are free, to find out your eligibility for various Patient Assistant Programs by just thinking about your own financial, work and debt situation, etc.
I recently offered to bring all of the paperwork (for the Medicaid branch that pays for Buprenorphine doctor visits and the prescription), all of the coupons and discount cards printed out in case they weren't eligible for the state program (though I'm certain they are), the Patient Assistance Program form for the Dr to fill out and send to Reckitt-Benckiser and a list of all the Buprenorphine doctors in a 50 mile radius of my friends home; and they declined even after asking lots of questions about how to get these things for free and get on Subs, even after months of talking about wanting to get on Buprenorphine desperately.
I can understand some reluctance and fear of the unknown, it is a big step to enter a treatment program- but if you have the desire to do so, why not take advantage of these openly available programs and opportunities rather than brush them off and continue to just talk about it, or complain about not being able to afford it, etc.? I don't know.