Free Republic

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...

Sorry for the vanity, folks, but I'm looking for some input from Freepers who are members of one of the Christian health-sharing ministries I've heard advertised on the radio. I'm in the application process for an individual medical insurance plan, and I just learned that I'm not eligible for a mid-year enrollment because I don't have a "qualifying life event" under Federal law. At first I thought I would just need to cover a two-month gap in my insurance coverage between November 1st of this year and January 1st of next year when I'll be eligible through open enrollment, but...

SAN ANTONIO — When Chris Doyle learned that his health insurance deductible would climb to $10,000 last year, he and his wife, both evangelical Christians, “spent a couple weeks just praying,” he said. Then they opted out of insurance altogether, joining something called a health care sharing ministry, which requires members to help cover one another’s major medical costs as they come up. While such nonprofit ministries have been around for decades, interest in them has grown since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, largely because the law exempts members from the requirement to have health insurance or pay...

Matt Drudge’s widely discussed tweet that he has already paid Obamacare’s “liberty tax” highlights the uncertainties the self-employed face both from the health care law and the tax code in general. As pointed out by an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily, “self-employed entrepreneurs ranging from Drudge to small-shop proprietors and independent contractors have long been aware of the requirement to estimate their tax liability and send a quarter of it in every three months, and that this amount includes ‘other taxes’ such as the ObamaCare opt-out penalty.”

The genuine “can do” spirit of America is far more powerful and long lasting than the empty mantra “yes we can.” The cheap knock off slogan coined by political hucksters will ultimately be swept aside as America wakes from the Barack Obama nightmare. One sign of Americans’ “can do” response to the man who fancies himself as our king is the growing enrollment in Medi-Share, a Christian alternative to Obamacare. Built on the simple truths that people need health care insurance and that Obamacare is not health care insurance but a devious scheme to entice us to trade our freedom...

So I just paid my first not-exactly-a-premium to Christian Healthcare Ministries. I had to wait a little while, got one of those “we are experiencing a higher than normal call volume” messages. When I finally got through I spoke with a nice the young lady and was able to pay up over the phone. When that was done, I asked her how business had been. She said it was so crazy busy they were trying to staff up to handle the volume. I said that was cool, and she said, yep, it’s a God thing, and I had to agree....

The Affordable Care Act runs more than 2,600 pages and now hundreds of thousands of regulations. No one knows every single provision that is in the law, which Congress did not even bother to read before passing it. Among its most controversial provisions is the mandate forcing Americans to purchase health insurance or face fines from the IRS. Those fines can even take the form of wage garnishment. Americans who fail to comply and pay the fine can end up in jail. There is, though, a provision buried in Obamacare that provides a way out of having to comply with...

As the deadline looms for American citizens to comply with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, many Christians are scrambling to understand their enrollment options. But many may be unaware of the fact that Obamacare provides a heath insurance exemption for people of faith who enroll in a Biblically-based healthcare sharing program. On pages 107 and 128 of the Affordable Care Act, Christians who participate in healthcare sharing ministries are exempt from the “individual mandate” to obtain health insurance. The legislation reads, “…Exemptions from Individual Responsibility Requirements — (A) In the case of an individual seeking exemption based...

When Jason Morris' son Cole was two years old, he broke his thighbone and spent several weeks in a full-body cast. The medical bills came to about $13,000, but Morris, his wife, and six children don't have health insurance. Instead they belong to Samaritan Ministries, an organization of devout Christians who chip in to cover each other's medical bills. Following the usual process at Samaritan, members from all over the country mailed the Morris family small checks that added up to enough money to cover all the bills. "We had the emotional side of it," says Morris, "but the financial...