Christian Health Share An Alternative To Health Insurance
Why We Left Traditional Health Insurance
I want to start this website off by give you some background information as to why we left traditional health insurance and decided to go with a Christian health sharing plan. I want to make it clear that I am in no way bashing traditional health insurance, but the way that its currently setup is a train wreck. Not only does it put a huge burden on middle class Americans but it doesn’t solve any of the current issues that we see with insurance. Premiums are constantly going up, cost are always increasing and it seems like a never ending cycle?!
In 15 years I used ‘insurance’ once, and that was to fix my right pinky after I accidentally slammed it into my car door. I had to get stitches and then surgery to repair the nail bed so that my finger wouldn’t look disfigured for the rest of my life. I’m thankful for the insurance I had at that time, but the cost of insurance has gone through the roof since I last used it. I understand the need for health insurance and that anything can happen to anyone at any time, so having some type of coverage is a wise choice, especially if you have a growing family, young kids or maybe you are past retirement; you need some type of coverage.
You see, my wife does PRN work at a local hospital. She’s a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) nurse and her current schedule doesn’t allow for us to have insurance through her work, I’m grateful that she is able to stay home and care for our 1 year old son.
I’m self-employed so the only way I can get health insurance is through HealthCare.gov. Have you ever played around with their insurance plans and prices? If you haven’t just go there now and add in your personal information.. see how much they want you to pay!
Here’s a screenshot of a plan that was comparable to what my wife was able to get at her previous job for $220/month. HealthCare.gov says we have to pay $683 per month and have a deductible of $7,000, who would want to pay for that?!
That is the biggest reason why we stopped using traditional health insurance! Not only would we have to pay $683 per month, but all of our hospital visits, check up and any other appointments we would possibly have over the year wouldn’t be covered until we spent $7,000! And the plan above was just one of their many choices. There were higher deductibles ($12,000) but your monthly rate would only drop about $120/month.
Like I said before, we rarely use insurance, so spending $683 every month was too much for our family.
Why We Chose Christian Health Care (Sharing)
One of the biggest pros of the Christian Health Care ministries available today, is that your money is going towards helping other people. Instead of paying such high premiums and paying such high deductibles, you pay a smaller monthly fee that gets ‘shared’ with other people who are actually in need of the money. You don’t pay an insurance company who has outrageous cost, expenses, employee cost/benefits, etc. Your money goes directly towards a need. Of course there are some administration cost, but nothing like you see in any traditional health insurance company.
Being apart of the Christian Health Care system, you aren’t actually insured. Its not insurance per the traditional definition, but you can save hundreds of dollars every month at the same time you get to help other people who are actually in need of the money. Many people may view Christian Health Sharing as a negative, purely on the fact that its not insurance, as well as they have a set guideline of what is covered and what is not. Each ministry has its own set of guidelines and strict policies that you have to follow in order to be accepted. In a way if you follow their guidelines it helps keep costs down and forces you to have a more active role in your own health care.
The actual definition of insurance:
a practice or arrangement by which a company or government agency provides a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in return for payment of a premium.
With Christian Health Sharing, you aren’t guaranteed anything, but you do buy into a system that will help share any of your ‘eligible‘ health care cost. You will want to read through the eligible guidelines with whatever Christian health sharing ministry you go with, especially their guidelines of how they cover certain medical bills. Such as, if you get into a car wreck and were intoxicated, none of your medical bills will be shared.
The best part about the ‘system’ is that you get to choose your own plan. Many of the Christian Health Sharing companies offer different plans which each have their own benefits. As of this writing there are 4 main Christian Health Care (Sharing) companies available to choose from, that I am aware of. Each have a wide range of pros and cons which I will highlight in another post…
As for my family we chose to go with Christian Health Ministries (CHM) and I will highlight why in another post as well.
