Posted on 01/02/2020 5:01:46 AM PST by karpov
Eight-year-old Blake Collie was at the swimming pool when he got a frightening headache. His parents rushed him to the emergency room only to learn he had a brain aneurysm. Blake spent nearly two months in the hospital.
His family did not have traditional health insurance. “We could not afford it,” said his father, Mark Collie, a freelance photographer in Washington, N.C.
Instead, they pay about $530 a month through a Christian health care sharing organization to pay members’ medical bills. But the group capped payments for members at $250,000, almost certainly far less than the final tally of Blake’s mounting medical bills.
“Just trust God,” the nonprofit group, Samaritan Ministries, in Peoria, Ill., said in a statement about its coverage, and advises its members that “there is no coverage, no guarantee of payment.”
More than one million Americans, struggling to cope with the rising cost of health insurance, have joined such groups, attracted by prices that are far lower than the premiums for policies that must meet strict requirements, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, established by the Affordable Care Act. The groups say they permit people of a common religious or ethical belief to share medical costs, and many were grandfathered in under the federal health care law mainly through a religious exemption.
These Christian nonprofit groups offer far lower rates because they are not classified as insurance and are under no legal obligation to pay medical claims. They generally decline to cover people with pre-existing illnesses. They can set limits on how much their members will pay, and they can legally refuse to cover treatments for specialties like mental health.
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The main requirement for membership is adherence to a Christian lifestyle.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Obamacare destroyed the individual health insurance market for people earning too much get subsidies for the policies on exchanges. If you want people to have better non-employer based health insurance, repeal the regulations that killed the market.
If the government would offer tort reform and some medical price gouging restrictions, I would be in favor of a government sponsored “stop loss” coverage. They already pay most of these costs anyway.
Free Press I love it! What a testimony of faith! I am thrilled by this editorial and I’m not being sarcastic. Maybe it will make some liberals think what these people have that kind of faith. And I’m thrilled that this is the one that I belong to!. They are wonderful on the phone very patient very helpful and always pray with you. I have been with them about four months now and I’m so happy to have taken the phone. I have a family of four. And yes I am Savvy enough to know what the New York slimes is doing here trying to show that they won’t cover things Etc but in fact they will. Hope ship in just like our family has four other people with their needs for the last four months.
An outright hit piece. I’ve read the reviews from actual users of this coverage and I’ve seen few complaints - especially compared to the actual insurance industry that the NYTimes claims to love now (until they decide to push for socialized medicine again)
The Obamacare set up marketplace price gouging. I did the premium care tax credit for a family with 3 children last year. They made about $80K and the government paid $37,000 in health insurance premiums for the family.
An outright hit piece. I’ve read the reviews from actual users of this coverage and I’ve seen few complaints - especially compared to the actual insurance industry that the NYTimes claims to love now (until they decide to push for socialized medicine again)
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Yes it is a hit piece. However the Lord will use it.
“If the government would offer tort reform”
That’s one of the basic blocks to lowering health costs.
Medicard is capped at what, 10-days annually for hospital stays? You have copays etc., with traditional Insurance companies. And there are no promises that everything is covered.
Since I am a member I just called and left them a nice voicemail of encouragement and pray for our enemies and the Lord will use this for his purposes and will increase not decrease
The Times will never write a positive piece about Christians, regardless of what the subject matter happens to be.
Another hit job from the New York Times on Christianity, disguised as a health care story.
Over half of my medicines are now on the most expensive co-pay list, even though covered at a much lower copay in previous years.
One of our FReepers battling with cancer is fighting Medicare to get them to cover a cancer treatment.
Compare and contrast how Medicare treats government employees and politicians ...
These groups are in effect mutual healthcare insurers that do not provide catastrophic coverage
I looked at the religious healthcare plans several years back. As I recall some (maybe all) offered an insurance catastrophic rider.
Hit piece. Been a member of a Christian healthcare sharing group for 7 years. Saved me a fortune and always got reimbursed for my medical bills. Recommended to others and every person has been happy with them.
Well, that’s interesting because the ads I hear on Rush seem to present a far different picture than the article here.
Folks, these health share ministries are a truly good option.
I know multiple people using them. I think the fact that your check or money order sent to directly help someone (you mail your premium to the recipient) is a powerful testimony.
Exactly. I have a friend whose wife was stricken with a rare but very serious cancer. A newly developed drug treatment was available, and it was so new that Medicare had not yet prohibited it. Now with the recent Medicare annual renewal completed he has found that the most recent Medicare drug list does not allow payment for this drug.
My wife and I have now been on Medicare for the past 7 years. We are currently paying about $10,000 annually for this "free" health insurance. This payment does NOT include the fact that for the past 54 years I have also been paying Medicare premiums through payroll deductions, and, in fact, continue to make such payments since I am continuing to work. In comparison to Obamacare payments, this is a good price, but it is hardly free, and the service is terrible. The physicians, clinics, and hospitals are paid but a pittance in comparison with their normal rates, and it is quite difficult to find those that actually take new Medicare patients.
I don’t remember the specifics, but there was an optional low cost catastrophic rider offered in addition to the shared expense element. Having no experience with the healthshare plans, I would have considered the option.
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