We’ve Lost the “Care” in Healthcare Insurance

Care: the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance,
and protection of someone or something

Today’s topic: healthcare insurance and why we don’t have it anymore! Gone are the days when we worked for someone else and a healthcare deduction on a pay stub was right up there with payroll taxes and merely a dollar amount to be ignored. Oh those naive days when all that mattered was the deductible amount you’d pay at a doctor’s office, if there even was a deductible! After I resigned from my corporate job several years ago, we were introduced to the big, bad, ugly world of the self-employed health insurance plan. Along with the huge increase in our self-employment taxes came the stinging pain of just how much health insurance was going to cost us each month and just how high a deductible could truly be!

**Disclaimer** I am not an expert on healthcare insurance or any alternative to healthcare insurance. The views expressed here are my own and reflect my family’s personal decisions concerning our own healthcare expense management. Any recommendations are just that and should not be construed as professional advice.

You Want How Much?

At the time we thought the cost was ridiculous, but back then the cost was nothing compared to the nearly $1000 a month we were expected to pay for our 2018 premiums. And that was for the least expensive plan with a whopping $15000 deductible! We were not feeling all that “cared” for, I can tell you that. And since we were forced to change plans as the premiums increased each year, having the same doctor to go to year after year was impossible. In fact, the last doctor I had chosen as “my doctor”, I never even actually met! When I first went in to get established as a new patient, “my” doctor was out of the country and so I saw the physician’s assistant that day. The thought of having a doctor who knows our history and whom we have an established relationship with is a distant memory for us. Any and all semblance of “care” went out the window for us years ago when it came to healthcare.

We’ve Had Enough, So Now What?

We knew we didn’t want to pay the higher premiums but we really didn’t know what to do about it. And with that, we began to search for alternatives. Do we just not have insurance and risk the penalty for not having met the Obamacare personal mandate requirement? The penalty amounts were pretty low when this whole mess started but after researching the current penalty, we quickly realized that it had grown to be quite large. And given the amount of income taxes we were already paying each year, we were not wanting to give away even more money in the form of a penalty. It’s one thing to throw money to an insurance company every year for coverage, but more money to the government for not having insurance was a big no-go for us!

The next alternative was something we had heard about on the radio numerous times and that was a Christian shared healthcare ministry. We didn’t fully understand what this type of program was really all about but upon further review, we quickly learned that while this type of program was not insurance, we would be exempt from the personal mandate. Exemption meant we would not be penalized for not having insurance.

Immediately, we learned that there was a huge monthly cost savings for us by joining such a ministry. But more than that, was the fact that we had the opportunity to apply biblical principles to managing healthcare! We could help other Christians with their healthcare costs and could count on the ministry to be there for us too, should we need it. So just like our finances (read about it here), we now had another way to live by biblical principles as they relate to helping others!

Just One Catch

The only scary aspect was a little issue of how much we would be penalized should we decide to ever go back to healthcare insurance. At the time, I think there was a 3 month grace period to make that decision but if you decided to return to insurance beyond that amount of time, you were then considered to have been without the mandated coverage. No insurance coverage meant a large percentage of any new premium would need to be paid on top of the premium as a hand-slap in additional penalties. Yay!

So we had to be very sure that we would be okay staying on as members of a ministry, if we made this initial leap. Fortunately, right after we joined our chosen ministry, the tax reform bill was passed and within the bill contained the removal of the personal healthcare mandate after 2018. So while we have no desire to go back to insurance coverage, it is nice to know that the nasty penalty will not be a factor should we, for any reason, need to make the switch.

The One for Us

And about the ministry we selected; we chose Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM). We made this choice after quite a bit of research. There are several options out there like Medi-Share, which is actually the one we first heard about on the radio. We went with CHM because our monthly gift was substantially lower, but we also really liked the program and its track record. Basically, the difference between the two options mentioned is the amount of “work” you personally take-on when processing your medical bills with CHM vs. what Medi-Share will handle for you. For us, the trade-off for the lower monthly gift was a good one because it would allow us plenty of room in our budget to donate additional funds for medical expenses that may not be covered (read more about those details over on the CHM website) or to pay for our own medical expenses such as preventative care visits under $500 (again more on how it all works over on the CHM website).

Can a Shared Ministry Work for You Too?

There are many other ministry options out there and I would highly recommend that other Christians struggling with the costs of healthcare insurance give these ministries some consideration. For us, the deductibles had gotten so high that we were basically only covered for catastrophic illness/injury anyhow. Yes, we did have regular preventative care covered, but we’re okay with footing those bills because in the long run, the premiums were costing us far more a year than preventative visits would cost us out-of-pocket.

And while it felt a bit scary at first (I mean I’ve had medical insurance coverage since I first entered the workforce at age 18), it now feels really good to be independent. And it feels even better to be following the principle outlined in Paul’s letter to the Galatians (6:2): “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Just one more way we are trying to live a more Christ centered life! Thanks for reading and if you have any questions about our experience as members of a Christian health cost sharing ministry, be sure to leave a comment below! Thanks for reading!

In His Grip,
{Shelley}