Many Americans have never been happy about the fact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, required them to have health insurance. And by not having health insurance, they were penalized. For some, it became cheaper to pay the penalty rather than pay for the health insurance plan, so they decided to chance it and go without.
Many Christians however, realized they had another choice, which was to sign up with a faith-based cost-sharing ministry. These types of ministries do not work like insurance, but they do offer an alternative for Christians who don’t want to participate in Obamacare.
These nonprofit cost-sharing ministries operate with the belief that they have been called to carry one another’s burdens, just as it states in Galatians 6:2. It is also their intent to meet one another’s needs just as the early church did in the book of Acts.
Jeff Smedsrud, an insurance expert who founded HealthValues.org, a website that provides information for various health-sharing ministries says, “Health-sharing ministries are not only fully in line with their faith, but also often result in a 50 percent savings compared to a major medical insurance.” All of them are exempt from the insurance requirements of the ACA.
Some of these health-sharing ministries do not accept people with pre-existing conditions. Other groups have different levels, and for those that have pre-existing conditions, they may be required to sign up at the top level. Under these health sharing plans, not all medical costs are shareable. For example, most plans don’t allow its members to submit bills from routine physical exams. Prescription drugs are also usually exempt from getting shared, as are things like visits to the chiropractor and physical therapy.
Besides that, faith-based health sharing plans require participants to abide by Christian principles. For example, members must follow Biblical teachings pertaining to the use of alcohol and they are required to worship regularly with other believers.
While there seem to be more limitations compared to regular health insurance, the members say it’s worth it.
Betty Allerdings was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and incurred nearly $300,000 in medical bills. “I admit that because I was a recent joiner, I was wary about how my bills would be paid,” she says. “Now, however, I can’t say thank you enough to all the members who have generously given to meet my needs.”
Besides paying for one another’s medical bills, members of these faith-based health sharing plans also receive encouragement and prayer from each other, often in the form of handwritten cares and letters. Both the staff and the members also pray for each other’s emotional, spiritual and physical needs.
Daniel Eddinger, another member of a health-sharing ministry says, “I like that the money goes to other families, and not the pockets of the insurance company,” he said. “You can be confident that your money has been spent wisely.”
One of the main complaints of regular health insurance is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to choose the provider you want to see. Insurance companies are contracted with certain doctors and oftentimes, a person’s doctor of choice is not considered in network. This means they either have to find another doctor or pay out of their own pocket to see the doctor they want to.
With faith-based health sharing, members are allowed to go to the doctor of their choice. Also, members of faith-based health sharing plans understand that, unlike insurance companies that force you to fork out thousands of dollars for something that might happen, these plans share the costs for things that have already happened.
According to Dr. Dave Weldon, a physician and former Republican congressman from Florida who currently serves as president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries says, “Since the ACA passed, the number of health care sharing members nationwide has more than doubled from less than 500,000 to about 1 million.”
Sheldon Weisgrau, the director of the Health Reform Resource Project for the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved says that this increase in numbers has the potential to destabilize the ACA individual market. “With about 10 million or 11 million people purchasing insurance through the ACA exchanges, 1 million people opting out in favor of health sharing ministries is a large enough number to affect the marketplace, depending on how they’re distributed in each state.”
Americans realize that the health care system is in dire need of change, but until then, Christians have another option that really is “affordable care.”
~ Christian Patriot Daily
