Somebody Doesn’t Like the Health Sharing Minstries
As people were unfairly taxed by the Affordable Care Act they started to look for other options. They didn’t want to pay the ridiculous amounts for health insurance premiums each month. These plans were the price of a home mortgage. Many just stopped getting insurance and dealt with the consequences. Others realized they needed some coverage. So, they chose the health sharing ministries:
More than a million people have joined the groups, known as health-care sharing ministries, up from an estimated 200,000 before the Affordable Care Act, which granted members an exemption from the law’s penalty for not having health insurance. The organizations generally provide a health-care cost-sharing arrangement among people with similar religious beliefs, and their cost is often far lower than full health insurance.
I am on Liberty HealthShare myself (the least religious) because the ACA cost for a plan was over $1800 a month with a $25K family deductible. That is criminal. This article points out some of the flaws (pre-existing conditions, late payments due to a massive influx of customers, etc.). The truth is that I have never had a patient complaint about them in my 5.5 years of DPC. On the other end, I have never had a patient NOT complain if they did have an ACA plan.
How is it that these plans can be profitable and yet the insurers need to keep gouging customers? The latter is due to greed. And that is why they are going crazy about the health sharing ministries:
Insurance regulators in several states have taken action.
Why do you think the insurance regulators are trying to take them down? They couldn’t be in the pockets of the health insurance industry, now could they?
P.S. I did have a pre-existing knee issue. My TKR had scarring and needed an arthroscopy to clean it out. I shopped around and got it done at the Monticello Surgical Center, which does everything by cash. The total cost, told to me up front, was $3800. Shopping around works. The free market works.
I love my health sharing ministry.
I have a few patients that have the health sharing program. They all hate them and say they are impossible to work with and they don’t cover anything that the patient needs.