Posted on 05/31/2016 2:10:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
SOUTH BEND — With health care now at a high price, many Christians are turning to what's called "health care sharing ministries" to help cover their costs.
Every Sunday, you'll find Christy Cleghorn and her little family of four at church. Like many other parishioners, they're praising and thanking the Lord for their countless blessings. Blessings like their baby Ethan.
At one point, Cleghorn didn't think she could afford to have another child.
"When we had our first child, it took us several years to pay off the bill, and we felt the burden of that," she said.
In the end, she and her husband were able to add to their growing family because of health care sharing ministries like Samaritan Ministries.
"The more I learned about this health care sharing ministry, I learned we would be saving money, and it was kind of a paradigm shift to how health care works," Cleghorn said.
Instead of paying thousands each month for a premium and meeting a deductible, she learned of another option -- an option that also ties into her Christian beliefs...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsbt.com ...
Curious what this woman sees as a Cristian basis here...
The ridiculous socialism that I’m sure will work out This time, or the impending mega rip-off resulting in the next episode of the tv show American Greed...
This only pertains to Chritians helping each other, but this is where that thought come from:
Acts 2:44-47
Now all who believed were together, and had all things
in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
I don’t see any socialism in this. It looks like classic insurance as it used to be. You pay around $5k a year for family coverage, and that covers major medical (above $300). BC pills and other routine expenses are not included.
Tammy Fae running this ?
She passed away in 2007. You might want to read the article.
Not a bad idea but if you’re going to church just for health care then you’re missing the point.
These type of ministries have been around for a long time...
I'm surprised at some of the silly comments posted so far...
We have this type of coverage. Ours is through another group but is basically the same concept. Christians as a group should have fewer riskier behaviors, so there is a cost saving basis due to that. We pay a set premium per month. Our Blue Cross out of pocket costs before any coverage would have been about $23k per year. We could not afford it, and I know I’m not paying that $1 per month little surcharge to cover abortions.
It has worked well for us and spared us the Ocare nightmare and chaos. Send the money and a note of encouragement TO THE PERSON with the ailment. Our friend from a town close by had heart surgery, had his bill cut in half by negotiating and had the $60,000 paid off in 4 months.
We had this type back in the earlier ‘90’s. My wife had laparoscopic gallbladder surgery that developed complications and eventually required major surgery.
$55,000 in bills submitted to the organization in January.
Or “Need” was published in the February newsletter and assigned to Singles, whose dues were $50/month.
By the end of March we’d received 1,100 checks from Single members and had paid off all of the bills. Thankfully, our local bank opened a free checking account for us to keep all these checks separate!
(We currently use VA medical for me and CHAMPUS & Medicare for Mrs. BN)
We switched to a Christian healthcare co-op 4 years ago.
Best thing we ever did. No Obamacare and better protection at lower cost. Our monthly amounts haven’t increased once! They’ve been around for 30 years.
Had an $13,000 emergency room visit a few yeara ago, we ended up paying ZERO out of pocket.
Couldn’t be happier being part of a group of Christians helping Christians.
Champus or Champva?
We switched to a Christian healthcare co-op 4 years ago.Best thing we ever did. No Obamacare and better protection at lower cost. Our monthly amounts haven’t increased once! They’ve been around for 30 years.
Had an $13,000 emergency room visit a few yeara ago, we ended up paying ZERO out of pocket.
Couldn’t be happier being part of a group of Christians helping Christians
We (our family) finally got me covered by one of these, end of 2013 I think. I'd had only intermittent health coverage since leaving Screw of IL civil service in '91. This was just in time for me to get diagnosed with an "old guy" disease, in mid-2014. Which turned into "advanced 'old guy disease'" when it was clear that the initial surgery hadn't gotten everything.
It hasn't been totally smooth sailing, but they've been there through this, through 2 surgeries, radiation and now an expensive hormone treatment on into the indefinite future.
And it's kind of neat to call in an update, and have the call person end up by "can I pray for you now?".
Sorry to hear about your health problems.
Great that the co-op is helping you. Isn’t it great not dealing with insurance companies or the government? That’s one thing I especially noticed with dealing with them. No questions about treatment and often a cheerful “God Bless You” on our calls.
I think it is CHAMPVA now. It was CHAMPUS (IIRC) back when our son was born at an off-base hospital when I was overseas 40 years ago.
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