September 3, 2019

The Rehab Racket Is Still a Racket

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A few years ago we ran a piece called “The Rehab Racket,” a close examination of the seamier side of drug and alcohol rehab facilities in the United States. A few months ago, Julia Lurie followed this up with a look at the “Florida shuffle,” an insurance scam in which addicts are paid to occupy beds at faux rehab facilities while counselors continue to feed their addictions.

This is all still going on, of course, and my friend German Lopez at Vox is crowdsourcing stories from addiction patients and their families about their experiences with rehab. The first one is here. If you or someone you know has a story to share, just click here.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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