You can beat the skyrocketing cost of health care and those super high deductibles. It’s called Christian Health Care. And while technically NOT insurance, these plans are accepted by the government as an alternative to Obamacare.
Our premiums were slated to go up to $1350 per month for myself and my wife. And the deductibles were $7500 per person! So that would have been $31,200 we would have been paying before the insurance would cover dollar one. Insane.
Looking around in December of 2015, I found a health care program at Christian Health Care Ministries.
They have plans starting at $45 per month. Their Gold plan is only $150 a month per person. The requirement to join is that you are a member in good standing with the church of your choice and that you believe in our Savior Jesus Christ and that you lead a christian life style.
The way it works it that members pool their money (its administered by CHM) and other members medical bills are shared and paid for out of the pool of money. The medical care/treatment has to be approved by CHM but for those medical expenses that are allowed, your reimbursement typically arrives within 90 days. You are still responsible for paying your bills (remember this is not insurance), so setting up a payment plan with your provider is quite useful as you await reimbursement.
There are a few Christian sharing programs available, but for us we thought CHM was the best for us as it also covered pre-existing conditions (somewhat). In part, here is what they say from their web site:
“Active vs. maintenance: We distinguish between pre-existing conditions in “active” treatment and “maintenance” treatment. Medical bills cannot be shared if, at the time you join CHM, the bills are for pre-existing conditions that are actively undergoing treatment other than with maintenance (routine) medications. After the incident is over and your doctor states that you are on a maintenance treatment regimen, bills for any new incident related to the pre-existing illness are eligible for sharing according to the information below.
Schedule: If these criteria are met, Gold level members can receive assistance with medical bills for pre-existing conditions according to the following schedule:
- In the first year of participation, bills incurred for a pre-existing condition are eligible for sharing up to $15,000.
- In the first two years of participation, bills incurred for a pre-existing condition are eligible for sharing up to $25,000 ($15,000 during the first year plus $10,000 during the second year).
- In the first three years of participation, bills incurred for a pre-existing condition are eligible for sharing up to $50,000 ($15,000 during the first year plus $10,000 during the second year plus $25,000 during the third year).
- After the third year of participation, the condition will no longer be considered pre-existing.”
So for us, this was ideal as there was a pre-existing issue that was in maintenance mode in our family.
We do have a Biblical burden within our plan and that is that any instance of medical care that is under $500 (such as a doctors visit) is up to us to pay. Anything over $500 is paid by CHM members sharing the cost of those medical bills.
You should check it out. Christian Health Care Ministries is the program we chose, but a friend of ours is enrolled in MediShare. Shop around folks and have faith!