What do you think of health care sharing ministries?
Share your experiences to help others!
For those of you who don't know, Obamacare included a "loophole" that allows you to NOT purchase insurance if it is against your religious beliefs.
Many Christians object to health insurance, and so Christian health care sharing ministries were born.
These companies (are some of them non-profits? I'm not sure) don't provide insurance, they provide cost-sharing. You pay a monthly household portion, you have an amount you have to pay out of pocket yourself, and then they will cover a proportion of the rest.
There are a few pitfalls here.
They don't guarantee payment. You can be on the hook for quite a lot if they decide not to pay.
They don't cover anything related to a "non-Biblical lifestyle." Sex outside of marriage, drug use, and so on. Specifics must vary (what is drug use, anyway? Are we including alcohol? What about nicotine? Or caffeine?!).
Why have it if it doesn't guarantee coverage/payment?
Newsflash - neither does your insurance company. The reason why medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in America is that health insurance companies deny, deny, and deny on the way to keeping your premiums instead of paying your bills with them.
The cost of a health care sharing ministry is dramatically lower than traditional insurance. Often they are one tenth or one fifth of the price. That's a massive cost-savings over years, let alone decades.
I have been a member of Medi-Share for years now. I had no particular reason to join them over another ministry - I had just heard of them.
Now, with my son in the hospital, this is an important issue for me. The reviews of Medi-Share on TrustPilot.com (one of my favorite websites) are... dismal.
I haven't submitted any bills to Medi-Share yet, but I have called their helpline and was disappointed that there were zero options to speak to a live human being.
I also called the hospital business office to check on our bill and it is... large.
What has your experience been with health-sharing ministries? Do you have a favorite? Do you have any horror stories or negative testimonials? Have any of you had major bills largely covered by them? Any amazing stories as happy customers?
Here are two things we plan to do to bargain the price of our care down:
Offer to pay cash up-front in exchange for a reduced price
Request an itemized receipt
Dispute the amounts in the receipt based on information on wholesale/fair market prices
We expect to pay much less than what we've been billed. I know that labs, for example, are routinely marked up by 50x.
Let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your input!
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman
I am so sorry for your situation.
This post made me have a little anxiety.
We were part of Medi share.
I have Puetz Jegher so when my husband and I signed up I marked that I had a preexisting condition and I called and talked to them about it. They said we were good to go. In 2017 you could talk to a real person.
Then I started having problems. I ended up in the hospital with an intussusception and needed emergency surgery. I also had complications with a procedure and had lost a lot of blood. I was hospitalized for 16 days.
Medi share was paying our bills and we were excited that it was working.
Well, one day we noticed on their website that they had requested every dollar that they had paid to be returned by the hospital that received the payment. I had no clue that could happen. I had been admitted to two different hospitals that year and one of them had already returned the money. The other hospital had not and my husband got on the phone and told the hospital “Do not return the money!” They listened and did not return it to Medi share. So we owed a bunch of money to the one hospital and that hospital would not negotiate anything. We had to set up payments to pay that hospital.
When we questioned Medi share they said that Puetz Jeghers syndrome is a genetic disease and they don’t cover genetic diseases!!!!!!!! Or maybe they said it was inherited and they don’t cover inherited diseases. It was one of those. It was so crazy and stressful. I lost all respect for that company.
And why wouldn’t they have looked at my diagnosis and explained that before we signed up. Something is really wrong with Medi share!
This is the first time to share this story so publicly but when I saw this post I knew I had to.
I am praying for you and your family.
A social worker in the NICU told us about the Katie Beckett / TEFRA waiver that allows children with severe health conditions or disabilities to receive Medicaid even if their parents make too much money. It is retroactive. It does not dictate what care you can / cannot pursue, nor does it mandate any cupcakes / jabberwockys. I highly recommend looking into it.