Why can't the media tell the truth about health care sharing ministries?

Anyone familiar with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) shouldn't be surprised at their recent segment attacking the network of health care sharing ministries (HCSMs). The taxpayer-supported PBS network pushes left-wing themes relentlessly.

In this case, they manipulated data and facts to paint a false picture of Health Care Sharing Ministries that fits their ideology.

Let's set the record straight.

PBS's segment asserts that Health Care Sharing Ministries don't share in the full amount of a patient's medical bill, neglecting to mention that this is also a standard practice with health insurance. Nobody — not insurers, not members of health care sharing ministries, and not self-pay patients — should pay list prices because they are almost always grossly inflated.

One of the best features of HCSMs is that they assist members in negotiating prices. Indeed, the bigger the "discount" from the original charge, the better. HCSMs would be irresponsible if they simply wrote price-gouging, price-hiding hospitals a blank check.

HCSMs negotiate hard on behalf of their members to get bills reduced, and some of them even negotiate contracts with hospitals or purchase access to networks of negotiated contracts to get bigger discounts for their members. The metric of a successful and responsible ministry in this regard would be a bigger, not a smaller gap between billed charges and amounts shared after successful negotiations or discounts.

It's beyond misleading for PBS and its guests to imply that ministries need more oversight because of their efforts to reduce costs for members.

The segment complains that HCSMs don't share in bills for immoral procedures.

That's a feature, not a bug, and it's a big reason why many Christians fled the insurance market and chose HCSMs instead.

Christians don't want to spend their money on abortions or gender-bending drugs and surgeries, for example.

Insurers operate pursuant to a gigantic ongoing conflict of interest. The more claims they deny, the more money they make.

The HCSMs I am familiar with, in contrast, pay themselves for the cost of administering their programs by taking a less than 10% cut of the money the members contribute, and that’s it. They do not get paid more based on denying claims. So they don’t have the incentive insurers do to stiff people with legitimate claims.

My daughter with husband and three boys loves her health share org. She does pay cash for routine checkups and the like and major hits are taken care of with no fuss. The doctors get paid their full price but inordinate charges are questioned and get reduced. Doctors bill legitimate fees and charges because they get paid what they charge while insurance companies regularly pay a fraction of the billed charged so the bills are jacked way up in order to recover a reasonable amount. B would be paying about 1200 a month for Insurance with 6000 deductible. Including their out-of-pocket for routine visits they are paying a bit more than 400. They had worried that they would have to do without until I told her to check out the Health Shares.

My daughter with husband and three boys loves her health share org. She does pay cash for routine checkups and the like and major hits are taken care of with no fuss. The doctors get paid their full price but inordinate charges are questioned and get reduced. Doctors bill almost always legitimate fees and charges because they get paid what they charge while insurance companies regularly pay a fraction of the billed charged so the bills are jacked way up in order to recover a reasonable amount. B would be paying about 1200 a month for Insurance with 6000 deductible. Including their out-of-pocket for routine visits. They are paying a bit more than 400. They had worried that they would have to do without until I told her to check out the Health Shares.

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