Posted on 12/15/2014 6:17:56 PM PST by yldstrk
Can those of you who are using Christian Health Ministries rather than traditional health care insurance please explain how it works and if you are happy with it? Have you ever been hospitalized during the time you were covered and how did it work?
Bump.
I would like to hear as well. i play the lottery when there are big bucks with the idea just to fund or do one of these. Christians are getting whacked and it will get worse. I did do some formulas of how i would do it. make them savings accounts but making payments on accounts if needed. Also i thot that the network system of insurance today crowds out any competition unless you pay full price. Insurance companies pay about 30%-50% of the billing charges. The ideal would be to set it up to pay the contract amounts. Also, You have “holding harmless” clauses for the members which is what the reserves are for.
I am over 60 and take an RX for diabetes.
Medishare would not “insure” me unless i payed an enormous supplement which made it just as expensive as “insurance”.
I retorted that this was a fine way to ‘take care of the widows of the church” and I was given the excuse that they were “a young ministry” and maybe they would have something for the poor widows in the future.
Funny, the early Church was barely off the ground and the entire structure was altered, including the creation of the Office of Deacon”, in order to take care of the widows.
Medishare boasts that it has been in effect for 30 years.
Phooey on them. I will take my chances with Folk remedies and Faith healing before I ever call them again.
PFL
Insurance can never be reasonably prided so long as health care service prices are hidden and huge and so long as the government keeps taking its cut via bureaucracy.
$135 more per month?
I meant reasonable priced. I was so busy trying to figure out how to spell bureaucracy that I failed to proofread adequately.
Anyway, your point about insurance companies paying less is a good one. The pricing should be clearly disclosed beforehand and the same for everyone. It should not require networking to get a better price.
Fine if no pre-conditions.
135 more a month in addition to the outrageous amount I am already paying
???????????????
well... prices that individual companies negotiate for services are proprietary. Like any other business. the government should not regulate actuarial sound decisions of any insco. let the price of what you can buy and the features of what you cN buy be competitive.
Competitive, yes. To a certain degree different negotiations may be fine. But in the healthcare industry the prices are very secret and drastically different. If an individual goes to the hospital and tries to find out what things will cost before checking in, it is practically impossible. Same for each step along the way. They have no idea what anything costs until you have checked out, gone home, and get the gigantic bill in the mail.
That is not competition. There is no ability to shop around. An exception can be made for a few common procedures, but for the most part it is a total racket where they take the most vulnerable people and basically charge them any darn thing they want to — AFTER THE FACT.
I guess my biggest complaint is that it is all distorted and uncompetitive for the individual, you know, the guy actually receiving the service.
It is not like you are Bayer supplying Walmart which sells 10,000,000 a year asprin units and that mom and pop store that sells 100 asprin units so you offer a lower wholesale to Walmart than to mom and pop. I am talking about the guy with stage 4 cancer who is in a rush for treatment, must pay it himself, and can get NO ONE to tell him what it will cost until AFTER the hospital stay is over. Not even a ballpark guess.
We are talking about sick, desperate people who have not the time to play games. Now even the dude with insurance is ONE GUY needing the same services. He just has someone else paying who knows how to bully negotiate. But because of that, Joe Desperado gets a jacked up price when he does finally get the bill -— AFTER THE FACT.
It is just wrong. That is not competition the way it is suppose to work. It is just back room hired-bully negotiations where the little guy gets squashed — during a time he is least able to handle it.
Sorry to hear about your experience with medishare. and i do believe that as a church we will need to look after each other more as things go along. how many of the hospitals were started by churches. i don’t know the count but i would guess a majority — if not the actual hospital, the schools behind them probably were.
Indeed...look at the names of the hospitals in any area. More often than not, they have a name which has religious significance!
I have since bought a small catastrophic policy from Allstate. It does not cover abortion, birth control, drug rehab, or mental health, so it is not legal under the ACA.
However, I am a 62 year old widow who lives alone, so I don’t need:
1. Abortion. (I am passionately Pro-Life.)
2. Birth Control (see above LOL)
3. Drug Rehab (I survived the 60’s. I am not about to start doing dope at this stage!)
4. Mental Health (Well, let’s see. I’ve survived:
a. My husband’s violent suicide
b. The loss of my home (and all of my artwork)
c. My best friend dying in my arms in a helicopter over a volcano
d. The death of my father
e. 6 years of obama
If I have not yet turned into a screaming, frothing, stark raving lunatic by now, I think I am safe.
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