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Christian cost-sharing health insurance gaining subscribers

by: By Bob Jones IV, with Joe Maxwell

The digital clock reads 3:45 a.m. as the alarm rings in Joel Smith's bedroom. Smith and his wife nudge each other out of bed and onto their knees. On the nightstand next to their king-size bed sits an Amplified Bible, a pair of reading glasses, and a telephone.

Joel picks up the latter and dials 1-800-PSALM 33 to check a recorded list of urgent prayer requests. Soon, the couple is deep in prayer for people they've never met, but with whom they share a common bond and commitment.

And they're not alone: The members of Medi-Share conduct a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week prayer chain for fellow members who have suffered sickness or injury serious enough to require filing a claim. At least, they would have filed claims with traditional insurers. At Medi-Share they file "needs," which bring not only the traditional reimbursement check, but also a card or letter from another member who has prayed for them.

With healthcare costs spiraling from $387 per person in 1972 to more than $5,000 per person today, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Smiths aren’t the only Americans looking for an alternative.

Christian cost-sharing programs offer a less-expensive answer that includes aspects of faith: conscience and clean living.

Every Christian care ministry stipulates that membership is based on living a healthy lifestyle, which means not smoking, not doing illegal drugs, and not participating in sex outside of marriage. Several groups also prohibit drinking entirely, while a few permit alcohol in moderation.

All these ministries point to widely published statistics indicating that up to 80 percent of all diseases are the result of lifestyle choices. The American Medical Association estimates that up to 40 percent of all hospital patients are treated for problems resulting from alcoholism, while the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services reports hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year on health care that results from unhealthy lifestyles that lead to higher incidence of cancer, accidents, AIDS, and heart disease.

Proponents of Christian cost-sharing ministries say they shouldn't have to support with their premium dollars the destructive conduct of others. Medi-Share president, John Reinhold, said his healthcare program is based on a model of Christian community found in the New Testament.

"Our members believe in sharing and caring," he said, "but they do not wish to subsidize those Christians or non-Christians who choose to live in a way which inevitably leads to a premature breakdown in mind and body, i.e., using tobacco, taking drugs, gluttony."

Many American Christians are ready for just such a philosophy for health care. While specifics vary from group to group, all share a basic Bible-based philosophy summarized in Galatians 6:2: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

"We still have the mandate to bear one another's burdens," states a brochure published by Samaritan Ministries, "but we hardly know what that means anymore. If our barn burns down or an emergency medical problem arises, the insurance company takes care of it and our friends, relatives, and neighbors have little participation in restoring us to our former state."

Christian healthcare alternatives seek to change that. Potential members are screened to validate a sincere Christian commitment. Some of the groups accomplish this by requiring membership in a local church and attendance at least three out of every four Sundays; others simply interview an applicant's pastor to verify the person's expressed faith in Christ.

Once accepted, a member usually enjoys coverage equal to or exceeding that offered by most conventional employer group plans. This is possible due to the large number of monthly dues-paying members, which creates a massive pool for meeting claims; some groups also cooperatively purchase major medical policies for catastrophic claims exceeding $50,000.

When members incur a need/claim, they report it to their group's national office. From there, different groups go about meeting the needs in different ways.

Some, like the Christian Brotherhood Newsletter, "publish" the needs of their members in a monthly newsletter, assigning each member a specific person to pray for and send their monthly support check to. Each member then mails his or her monthly membership fee directly to the person assigned, along with a card or letter of encouragement.

Other groups, including Medi-Share, ask members to send their monthly dues to the main office, which then redistributes the resources to those who have needs that month. Members then receive a notification from the main office informing them of the specific person whose need they helped to meet, and they are encouraged to write and pray for that member as well.

But when the crisis comes will the check also arrive? That's exactly what ran through Charles and Connie Jackson's minds as they drove their little girl, Jessica, to the hospital for repair of a broken elbow. When a clerk asked for proof of health coverage, Charles, a seminary student, nervously pulled out the membership card provided by Medi-Share.

Charles thought for a moment that he might have to offer an explanation of his group's novel approach, but he realized the clerk was processing his claim just as she would for any other insurance company. "She didn't ask, so I didn't offer," he says.

In fact, Medi-Share boasts that, "to date, no member has ever been refused treatment by any medical entity." In the case of Jessica Jackson, her parents paid the first $250 of her medical bill as a deductible, and then Medi-Share picked up about another $700 in expenses. The couple says they are now confident not only in the biblical nature of cost-sharing, but in its practical feasibility, too.

Or as Medi-Share’s Robert Dixon put it, "Those who join are grateful that behind us is a multi-billion dollar 'safety-net' entity and beneath us are the everlasting arms."

Excerpted and reprinted with permission from World Magazine.