Health care sharing ministries have been around for years, and they fill a niche in a diverse insurance market shattered by Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has provisions that allow sharing ministries to coexist with Obamacare plans, which makes many consumers happy, but irritates some Obamacare advocates. It’s been a year since I last wrote about health care sharing ministries, saying:
I like health care sharing ministries, but I’ve always suspected they work best as a true ministry whose members are people of faith with shared values. If you truly believe you are your brother’s keeper and he is yours, you may be able to pool health resources if you can all agree on a common set of rules. I like that sharing ministries can dispense with Obamacare mandates that drive up the price of insurance and force people to subsidize services they don’t view as necessary.
The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (AHCSM) reports there are 107 nonprofits certified as meeting the federal definition of a sharing ministry. This is down from 108 a year ago. The AHCSM is the trade association for sharing ministries.
Last year Kaiser Health News reported on aggressive marketing by a Texas sharing ministry that enrolled people who thought they were enrolling in health insurance. That is unfortunate because as I said before, I believe sharing ministries work best when like-minded enrollees share a common goal. Today about 1.7 million Americans are members of sharing ministries, up from about 1.5 million a year ago. An investigation by the Colorado Division of Insurance concerns advocates of Obamacare, who lament the fact that nearly 2 million people found an alternative.
A new report has provided the first national count of Americans who rely on health care sharing plans — arrangements through which people agree to pay one another’s medical bills — and the number is higher than previously realized.
The report from the Colorado Division of Insurance found that more than 1.7 million Americans rely on sharing plans and that many of the plans require members to ask for charity care before submitting their bills.
The total membership numbers are likely even higher. The state agency collected data from 16 sharing plans across the U.S. but identified five other plans that did not report their data.
The extent of enrollment caught Obamacare proponents by surprise.
“These plans cover more people than we had previously known,” said JoAnn Volk, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
Under the arrangements, members, who usually share some religious beliefs, agree to send money each month to cover other members’ health care bills.
Critics are quick to point out that sharing ministries lack the so-called patient protections of Obamacare.
Sharing plans do not guarantee payment for health services and are not held to the same standards and consumer protections as health insurance plans. Sharing plans are not required to cover preexisting conditions or provide the minimum health benefits mandated by the Affordable Care Act. And unlike health insurance, sharing plans can place annual or lifetime caps on payments. A single catastrophic health event can easily exceed a sharing plan’s limits.
Colorado, like many other states, is a vast ocean of conservative voters surrounding islands of blue cities. Insurance officials from Denver likely don’t understand the distain for Obamacare outside the capital.
In Colorado, at least 67,000 people were members of sharing plans in 2021, representing about 1 in 4 Coloradans purchasing health care coverage on their own. That rate concerns Kate Harris, a chief deputy commissioner of the Colorado Division of Insurance, which she said regularly receives complaints from sharing plan enrollees.
Perhaps I should call Ms. Harris and bend her ear about how much I dislike my Obamacare plan. From 2022 to 2023 I will have paid about $15,000 total in premiums, for which I will have gotten nothing in return. Literally nothing but the assurance that if an extremely unlikely medical catastrophe were to befall me, I would not have my life savings and retirement funds wiped out. Granted, that is worth something, just not anywhere near $15,000.
Fourteen sharing plans reported that Colorado members submitted a cumulative $362 million in health bills in 2021, and nearly $132 million of those requests were approved. The remainder, sharing plan executives told the division, reflected duplicative bills, ineligible charges, negotiated discounts, and the members’ agreed-upon portion of medical bills.
“It’s not like every claim line on a health care sharing request is going to be eligible for sharing,” Talento said. “They have to submit the whole bill. They can’t just pull out a piece of it.”
State officials are uncomfortable with the arrangements, however.
But consumer complaints to the Division of Insurance and to consumer assistance programs, such as the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, show that members do not always realize what sharing plans will cover.
Sharing ministries have their place but they’re not for everyone. One former member voiced this complaint, which suggests she was never a good candidate in the first place:
“I will never go back to Liberty Health or a health care sharing plan,” she said. “I didn’t agree with the whole ministry thing. They made you sign off saying you believed in God, which was like, ‘Whoa, I guess that’s what I have to do to get my health insurance.’”
Her comment makes me wonder what about the word “ministry” did she not understand? On the other hand an article published by Kaiser Health News talked to a man named Mike Quinlan from Denver. He has been a member of Samaritan Ministries International for nearly a decade. His experience has been positive, including reimbursement for the birth of three children.
Samaritan Ministries has been around for many years, long before Obamacare and is well respected. The ministry requires members to affirm they are part of a ministry and share similar values.
Every year, Quinlan attests that he is a Christian and identifies the church he attends.
“This is a group of like-minded people who have said voluntarily we’re going to trust each other to cover each other’s health costs,” he said.
Anecdotes like these are why I’ve always believed health sharing ministries work best as ministries rather than health cooperatives. Unfortunately, the ACA does not have provisions to allow like-minded people to join nonprofit, health cooperatives that pools health costs and adjudicates health benefits like a health plan.
I should have delved farther in my last paragraph and talked about health cooperatives. That is essentially what a sharing ministry is. I wish there were a way to combine a stop loss policy with a health cooperative to share costs in such a way you’re not receiving a batch of $600 checks in the mail, as one man said.
“irritates some Obamacare advocates”
True believers know there can be no rational disagreement with the Received Narrative. Thus no need for “alternatives”. But the enlightened have a moral duty to protect the benighted from making bad choices. Therefore alternatives must be suppressed.
And besides, manufacturing only one shoe size is more efficient. True believers know this from science.
There is also this rediculous notion that shoes should come in different widths, colors, styles, and uses. People don’t need that much choice. Furthermore, making dedicated shoes for only a left or right foot is a waste of resources. To make shoes affordable, all shoes should cost the same regardless of how far you walk each year. You should also supply your own shoes, only receiving the ACA shoes if you walk the out-of-house maximum of 9,100 miles on an approved street, path or track.
Devon, I’m the pro, not YOU. I’m licensed coast to coast to sell insurance and you are an lowly amature. Sharity Ministries went bankrupt in 2021 and left 10,000 families high and dry with NOTHING. This is not Insurance Devon and they are not regulated by the Department of Insurance in the States. Something you never mention. We need a Department of Promises. Their lititure says they don’t have to pay anything! But their toll free number is (888) My Bible
Liberty HealthShare Left Thousands With Debt as It is not insurance either. On July 8, 2021, Trinity Healthshare, Inc. (“Trinity”) abruptly filed for bankruptcy amid an enforcement action brought by the Department of Financial Services alleging that Trinity and its affiliate, the Aliera Companies (“Aliera”), engaged in a fraudulent and illegal health insurance business in New York. How you can promote FAKE Insurance Devon is beyond me. Are they paying YOU?
People should [[always]] pay attention to me and [[NEVER]] pay any attention to you even if you are a PhD in economics. I can’t believe you fall for fake insurance. If you truley are on a Texas Obamacare plan that means you are on a dangerous and DEADLY HMO. Not one Obamacare plan can use MD Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston. The VP of MD Anderson said, “The Obamacare people can come down and look at the buildings but they can’t get in!”
Governor Stitts of Oklahoma just endorsed DeSantis yesterday, the 1st Republican Governor to do so. But Gov. Stitts is more uninformed than you Devon. Stitts has all Oklahoma State employees and all teachers on one plan that costs $1,046 a month for a family to have a Blue Cross HMO with cheesy dental. Trump’s Plan for a 30-year-old couple and 2 children is less than half with better dental!! This stuff is governed by the Oklahoma Insurance Department Devon. PLUS, Trump’s Plan pays $30,000 CASH with a heart attack, cancer or stroke.
Devon, this dangerous employer-based plan in Oklahoma explodes in price if the employee gets ovarian cancer and becomes too sick to work. The price from Blue Cross is $2,775 a month if she is a bald-headed Okie and too sick to work.
In Contrast, with the Trump Plan she SAVES $542 every month and the dental benefit is double that of the low-rent SOONER plan. Plus, if she gets [cancer] her low premiums remain constant and she gets a check for $30,000 which comes in handy because her paycheck has stopped!
YOU can see why I am advertising big time in Oklahoma. A Blue Cross HMO, get real! They blew it! Here we come. We were in the Oklahoma Blues’ Blindspot, they didn’t see us coming.
Devon, is it TIME to ELIMINATE Employer-based insurance? Should employers choose the health insurance on their employees’ children even if they are unfamiliar with these childrens’ medical history? Shoot, these employers don’t love these children and they are not guardians. These employers care so little they don’t know these childrens’ names.
Where can I read about the Trump plan quoted here? Is it an indemnity plan? (sounds like it) Does it have a website? Thanks in advance for the info.
Ron, by not providing me with info about the Trump plan, you kind of force me to debate with myself. So be it, here goes:
1. Your implication is that the Oklahoma public employee should replace the employer coverage with the Trump plan. The cost of the Trump plan is way less than the workplace plan…in fact, it is less than just the employee share of the workplace plan.
2. Let’s assume that the employee gets cancer while on the Trump plan. Assuming their claim is approved, they would get a check for $30,000.
However — if they want to go to M.D. Anderson, their total expenses could easily be $100,000.
I read an account a couple of years ago about an individual who was uninsured and showed up at M.D. Anderson. The clinic required him to pay $60,000 up front, and they would not start treatment until the check cleared.
The above is not an endorsement of the standard Oklahoma Blue Cross-type plan. It is an endorsement for having some catastrophic coverage.
The Trump Plan is a PPO and the MAYO Clinic and MD Anderson are both participating providers of the Trump Plan which utilizes the Aetna Open Access Broad National network. I know you have your eagle eye on me so I can always back up what I say.
I am going to advertise on a network of 30 Christian Radio stations in Oklahoma and on the Tulsa News-talk radio station. 30-year-old teachers’ families save $500 a month and that includes dental!
Oklahoma Blue Cross is being so goofy and greedy it gives me this opportunity to destroy them. A teacher who gets cancer her COBRA is $2,775 a month! See I can attack Blue Cross really bad!! This is what competition is in the Free and Open Market. It is similiar to when a wolf pack runs down a deer in the wild. It’s brutal for the deer and Blue Cross but young families get happy shiny teeth and dental coverage! Sales is simply a transferrence of perspective.
Bob, the State of Oklahoma is selling the retired State employees a Medicare Suppliment with Part D coverage for $698 a month! [[I am not kidding]]. They charge double for a retired couple on Medicare or $1,396 a month without dental! That is a whopping $16,754 a year!! PLUS, the dumbass Governor Stitts, who just endorsed DeSantis, isn’t even getting a commission! What a schmoe! He must be getting [[kickbacks]] under the table, I swear. Trump’s Medicare Advantage MSA is FREE and Trump puts $6,000 in the couple’s MSA at the bank. That is a total savings Bob of [[$22,754 each and every year]] for these old Sooner State Retirees!
Sure Oklahoma is charging over $1,000 a month for Oklahoma teachers and it’s an easy Mark for me to attack. But, I’m going to attack several states like IOWA where the 1st Vote is going down. In Iowa Trump’s Plan has dental and many families can get Trump’s Plan for less than $300 a month with dental. PLUS, a single parent MOM state employee in Iowa has her Blue Cross COBRA go over $2,000 a month! Pricy huh? We are hitting N. Carolina too.
However, I’m advertising on the Husker Radio Network that Nebraska State employee Moms with Ovarian Cancer have to pay [[$3,116 a month]] for COBRA with dental. Nebraska state employees pay the highest COBRA in America thanks to the old Governor Pete Ricketts who is now running for US Senator and refuses to support President Trump. I’m sure Senator Ricketts will get a big kick about my Radio spots on Husker Network which goes coast to coast. You do realize I am licensed coast to coast too. So that’s pretty handy Bob.
Thanks for the info!
I do track you on the Medicare Advantage plan that puts $3000 in each insured’s MSA. I remember when these came out….they were like $1600 extra deposit per insured back when I sold a few of them.
I do not track you yet on the Iowa PPO plan for an under-65 family at less than $300 a month even with dental. Is this plan underwritten? I don’t know how you can get premiums that low without underwriting and very large deductibles.
Bob, Blue Cross of Oklahoma got too greedy and messed up. They charge a State Employee or teacher $1,050 a month out of their check for a Blue Cross family HMO that pays nothing out of network. Then if she is too sick to work her COBRA explodes to $2,775 every month and of course she has lost her income so Blue Cross causes maximum stress on bald-headed women.
Here are the numbers for Trump’s Plan for a 30-year-old couple with twin sons at 10 years-of-age in OK City. The Trump Plan is $264.89/month with $10K deductible and 100% coverage. The deductible is waived if an Urgent Care facility is used, AMAZING. This is a PPO that MD Anderson Cancer Hospital of Texas and MAYO Clinic facilities participate with $1 million max. We have more expensive co-pay plans that pay to $5 million and guaranteed issue products to $250,000. Lets focus on the $264.89 monthly premium because the deductible is so close to Obamacare’s $9,100 per person deductible so it will be [fun] to compare. Ready?
The cheapest Blue Cross of Oklahoma plan on Obamacare is a PPO with a $6,000 deductible and $9,000 Out-Of-Pocket (OOP). However, if you go Out-Of-Network (OON) your deductible increases to $18,000 (LOL) and Out-Of-Network hospitals require a $2,000 Fee and then 50% payment with no limit on the patient’s expenses. Blue Cross is charging $1,299.42/month or more than 490% more than Trump’s Plan. Kinda pricey right? I mean 50% payment with the cancer person paying 50% of all out-of-network costs. That’s pricey too right? Blue Cross Association has the Federal taxpayers footing the bill. The poor sick person pays 1/2 the bill. Blue Cross is evil. The Devil was present when the Blue Cross Association was born.
Bob, if we use the same Trump age-based tax credits that he proposed with Dr. Tom Price in January 2017 this 4 person family in OK City will get a $10,000 Age-Based Credit for the purchase of insurance. $3,000 for each parent and $2000 per twin. Trump’s Plan’s cost is $3,178.68 a year so the balance of $6,821.32 is deposited into the family’s tax-free HSA!
I’ll go slow so I don’t lose you Bob. We know that the total cost for her employer-based Blue Cross is $2,775 a month or $33,300/year. The Federal treasury is hit bad because they lose 15.3% Payroll Tax AND Income tax or the D.C. wonks calculate 40% of $33,300 or $13,320 is lost on the EXCLUSION of over-priced DANGEROUS employer-based insurance. So, in other words Bob, Trump’s Age-Based Tax Credits at $10,000 is SMALLER than the current $13,320 EXCLUSION on OVER-PRICED dangerous employer-based insurance that ONLY Blue Cross benefits from. It certainly isn’t the SOONER State Mom employee paying $1,050 a month for Blue Cross out of her check that pays for a dangerous HMO!
My Question Bob, would Okie State employee Mommas prefer to pay over a $1,000 a month for low-rent Blue Cross of Oklahoma HMO with cut rate dental that explodes to $2,775 a month should she get cancer on a Blue Cross COBRA OR Vote Republican and have President Trump pay 100% of the Trump Plan with a $10K deductible per person with the Aetna Open Access Broad National PPO Network that includes the MAYO Clinic PLUS President Trump will deposit $6,821.32 in the family’s HSA at the bank annually.
Remember, OK City is cheap like it is in KS, MO,NE, IA, IL, IN, OH, NC, KY so these states will get larger HSA deposits like Oklahoma. But, Dallas, where Devon lives is more expensive for Trump’s Plan and in Dallas a 30-year-old couple with twins will have Trump pay 100% of their Trump Plan premiums but the deposit into the Dallas’ family’s HSA drops to $3,165.88 annually. As you can see the health insurance cost in the REAL open market has Texans paying double.
Thanks for the details, you tell a strong story.
I am still a little puzzled by that family premium of $3,178 a year. I cannot even get that low on a short term plan in Oklahoma City. A Golden Rule plan with a 10K deductible plus dental runs about $413 a month or $4,956 a year.
If the Trump plan is a short term contract, it might not have guaranteed renewal. The insured who gets cancer might have to duck back into the overpriced Blue Cross plan at the end of the first year.
There was an interesting internet article on the Trump plan quoting you on 5-1-2018, but I could not find an update.
Bob, you are like a snitzel. You are sharp too. There you go, Golden Rule has short term with dental for under $5,000. I never used Golden Rule because they take away your right to sue. But, United Healthcare (UHC) is the World’s largest Insurance company determined by collected premium. In Nebraska UHC has the State employee plan for $35,000 a year per family and UHC also makes low-cost STM with Golden Rule for our family of 4 for under $5,000 with dental!
I have always used TIME insurance because they have a superior product and were in more states. Let’s say both plans have coverage for $5,000 with Dental for the family of 4. Trump’s age-based tax-credits would pay 100% of the premiums plus put $5,000 in the family’s HSA. I’m sure if the state employees had a choice they would take Trump’s FREE insurance and have $5,000 deposited in their HSA!. Now the State of Nebraska doesn’t have to spend money on insurance. Trump’s age-based tax credits will replace really expensive Medicaid. In Nebraska we are spending over $8,0000 a year for Medicaid. Age-based tax-credits are cheaper.
PLUS, the federal government is losing Payroll tax and Income tax on $35,000 a year which the wonks calculate 40% or the current EXCLUSION is costing $14,000 a year for employer-based insurance and Trump’s age-based credits are only $10,000.
Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) of Texas has the Healthcare Freedom Act and Republicans want to let EVERYBODY have an HSA and make the Annual Maximum contribution limit at $12,000 for a sigle and double for a family. Plus, the catch-up clause increases to $5,000 per year per person.
So, people over 65 will have an MSA that the federal government makes deposits and also an HSA which they can shift $17,000 a year into unless they are married then $34,000 Annually may be shifted into America’s BEST tax dodge, the tax-free HSA.
I am advertising after the 4th in Oklahoma and some other states. Maybe you should follow up on some of the leads. TIME changed their name a couple of months ago to the Good Hands People! The Mayhem man says those other companies are cut-rate. We will advertise to prospects that want to escape HMOs. Remember, in Oklahoma Obamacare Blue Cross PPO only pays 50% out of network and the deductible swells to $18,000!
These inbounds will just want to go with the Trump Plan so it will be a salesman’s paradise!
Well, your sales talk is not boring.
I believe it was Dr John Goodman himself who got Sen. McCain to propose age-based tax credits in the 2008 campaign. Someday I will have to do my own estimate as to whether this change would really be budget-neutral. Your sales pitch makes it sound like these credits are just around the corner,,,,,but I do not think that Congress is even close to adopting them.
The older gent who founded my original agency in Duluth used to sell Time’s individual health product. He really liked it.
But I thought that Time Insurance went broke. The Good Hands People name belongs to AllState, doesn’t it?
I still could not tell from your post what insurer was offering family coverage for $3,178 a year.
As for being a snitzel, my ancestors were Russian Jews so they did eat Schnitzel. Personally I cannot stand the stuff.