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Christian healthcare enters new phase

by: Rebecca Barnes

Joe Foreman uses phrases such as "subsidizing evil," and "wasting money," when he talks about health insurance. The representative for the Medi-Share program worked in the health insurance business for nine years and saw first-hand the astronomical increases in premiums that have skyrocketed along with the costs of health care (from $387 per person in 1972 to now more than $6,000 a year for the average American).

Insurance premiums can average thousands of dollars a year for individuals without subsidies from an employer. And some 40 million Americans have no coverage at all, simply because they can’t afford it. 

Foreman said his stint in the insurance business left him discouraged by the premium increases and he questioned them.

"They came back with an answer," he said. "Lifestyle abuse." Preventable illnesses and lifestyle choices leading to drug and alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, and cancer from tobacco use were clearly costing the consumers more. Christian consumers who exercised the spiritual fruit of self control were often used to balance out the insurance pools of people who made unhealthy choices.

So Foreman became interested in Christian consumer driven healthcare alternatives, groups that reward clean living with reduced healthcare costs through medical sharing plans. Any self-employed Christian could certainly appreciate the savings of $2,000 to $8,000 a year. The model appeals especially to ministers, missionaries, evangelists and Christian musicians, for whom traditional private insurance is difficult to acquire. Pastors counseling parishioners in financial distress find they can often recommend the Medi-Share program.

Subscribers to alternative plans pay in to help take care of medical expenses for other program members according to the scriptural model that calls Christians to "carry each other’s burdens." (Gal. 6:2)

"In the old days this was the way things were always done. Everybody got together and took care of each other," Foreman said.

The Medi-Share program is not the only Christian organization helping Christians take care of one another, but the program may be the most disciplined and organized of all the Christian programs. They are leading the way with checks and balances built into their accountability structure.

For example, the Medi-Share program is not just a "newsletter" program. They have a processing office to match up the incoming membership shares with actual medical needs of individual members and to pay doctor and hospital bills directly without burdening the sick or injured member with the bookkeeping. The Medi-Share program employs actuaries to research the effect of proposed Guidelines changes upon members’ monthly shares. They have an independent Executive Board and no nepotism is allowed on the board.

"This non-profit ministry is a program with accountability," an organization brochure proclaims. In addition to annual audits, which other groups are now using as well, the Medi-Share program also publishes quarterly financial reviews.

In addition, the Medi-Share program has a trust that’s backed by an international carrier to pay for members’ medical bills from $50,000 to $5 million.

Groups like the Medi-Share program, which began in 1993, learned quickly what the insurance industry had known for years about pre-existing conditions, the medical fraud of double claims, and more.

Today they require full disclosure from their applicants not only on lifestyle and faith issues, but on past history of medical conditions.

"Unfortunately insurance doesn’t go far enough on accountability, and a lot of Christians have an insurance mindset," Foreman said. The Medi-Share program feels it has a role to play in helping Christians re-evaluate this mindset from a Christian perspective of stewardship of the body—both the individual member’s body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 6:19) and the corporate body of Christ (I Cor 3:16).

As a result, the Medi-Share program also focuses on another sort of accountability — the health of their subscribers. Through both strict guidelines on lifestyles that affect members’ eligibility and a board of medical professionals who offer lifestyle counsel for changing diet and exercise, the organization has taken a direct interest in the health of their members.

"The Medi-Share program isn’t interested in subsidizing a lifetime of prescription drugs that simply alleviate symptoms," Foreman explained. "Oftentimes, those drugs have very dangerous side effects. It would be far better to cure the underlying medical problems through serious weight loss, nutritional changes, breaking of habits and developing new exercise regimens."

"We don’t tell anybody what they have to do, but we do give them direction," said Foreman.

One woman who reported her testimony on the group’s Web site said she took advantage of the Medi-Share program’s offer to send her to a lifestyle center to help eliminate the hypertension she had suffered from for 20 years, as well as to lose weight and learn better ways to live healthfully.

The Medi-Share program takes the insurance model to a new level of interest in health. "We’re not an insurance company," Foreman said, "We’re a fellowship of 55,000 Christians, and we take care of each other according to the biblical mandate."

The group also provides spiritual care. They operate a 24-hour prayer chain and Members are asked to send prayers, cards and e-mails directly to the sick or recuperating member named in their monthly share notice.

All the alternative groups have some spiritual focus. The Medi-Share program is clearly distinguished by its emphasis on healthy living, according to both the Bible and medical science.

With that same idea in mind, Foreman said he’d like to see church staffs re-evaluate how they’re using the funds their church members have contributed to the church. The salaried pastor’s family may be covered under a $1,000/month insurance plan while people in the pews paying for it have no coverage of their own.

"When we put money into the commercial pool we’re subsidizing lifestyle abuse," Foreman said of private insurance. Instead, he advocates a return to a Christian stewardship mindset that doesn’t unequally yoke unbelievers and believers. (II Cor.6:14)