It Looks Like Health Insurance, but It's Not. 'Just Trust God,' Buyers Are Told.

[applegrove]

It Looks Like Health Insurance, but It’s Not. ‘Just Trust God,’ Buyers Are Told.

Some state regulators are scrutinizing nonprofit Christian cost-sharing ministries that enroll Americans struggling to pay for medical care, but aren’t legally bound to cover their members’ claims.


By Reed Abelson at the NYTimes

Jan. 2, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/health/christian-health-care-insurance.html

"SNIP.....

Eight-year-old Blake Collie was at the swimming pool when he got a frightening headache. His parents rushed him to the emergency room only to learn he had a brain aneurysm. Blake spent nearly two months in the hospital.

His family did not have traditional health insurance. “We could not afford it,” said his father, Mark Collie, a freelance photographer in Washington, N.C.

Instead, they pay about $530 a month through a Christian health care sharing organization to pay members’ medical bills. But the group capped payments for members at $250,000, almost certainly far less than the final tally of Blake’s mounting medical bills.

“Just trust God,” the nonprofit group, Samaritan Ministries, in Peoria, Ill., said in a statement about its coverage, and advises its members that “there is no coverage, no guarantee of payment.”

......SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Republicans live 'skinny' plans.

[Historic NY]

2. "Pay and then pray plan".

[lapfog_1]

7. Reminds me of the saying "Pills, Prayers, and Postmortums"

this sounds like that only limit the number of pills and please make them the cheap ones.

[mwooldri]

3. I hear that kind of thing advertised a fair bit.

"Medishare"... IMO the only "medishare" type thing that is acceptable in my eyes is something akin to the UK's NHS. However said Medishare is probably an OK idea when coupled with actual health insurance. Otherwise when that catastrophic case comes along praying to God may be the only thing you can do. Problem is Medishare type schemes are being advertised as an alternative to health insurance - and IMO that should be outlawed.

[tulipsandroses]

4. How is this legal? I'm confused? If there is no guarantee of payment, what's the point?

The whole thing sounds absurd.

[applegrove]

5. They want people to get their sense of healthcare safety from the church,

not government or obamacare. That would be my guess.

[Ohiogal]

6. I, too, wonder

how this isn’t illegal?

[Wounded Bear]

8. In God We Trust...

all others pay cash.

[PSPS]

9. You hear ads for these charlatans on "christian" radio stations

It's all a scam, of course. Their hook is that you share your medial costs with others "who share your values" (i.e., abortion coverage, contraception, or whatever the listener wants to infer that they think makes them special.)

Washington State's insurance commissioner is suing some of these outfits because what they are offering as "insurance" doesn't actually meet the definition of insurance at all.

[area51]

10. All the more reason

why we need comprehensive Medicare for All.

[Hortensis]

16. :) But what do you care about the name on the label

if it's comprehensive for all? Frankly, faith in a label that doesn't even exist in reality reminds me of these people's religious faith. "My god, not yours."

Yes, my faith's in the the one in hand that can be expanded as realistically and assuredly as adding a room to the house I'm sitting in.

[Warren_Pointe]

11. Sounds like a Monty Python sketch

Devious: You see, you unfortunately plumped for our 'Neverpay' policy, which, you know, if you never claim is very worthwhile, but you had to claim, and, well, there it is.

[Initech]

12. Snake oil salesman.

[dflprincess]

13. Just another way to bilk people

in Jesus' name.

[ISeeSlander]

14. Lack of Research Uniformed Opinion

Samaritan Ministries does indeed have a cap of $250,000 per incident per person. However, members are encouraged to be a part of their "Save to Share" program, which does not have a per incident cap. All of this can easily be found in their Guidelines, which are posted on their web page, easily accessible to all, including those writing articles at the New York Times. A little research before purchasing a product/service can go a long way in avoiding financial pain and erroneous reporting.

Further, is the New York Times now in the business of reporting "almost" certainties? Where are the factual figures regarding the costs of Blake Collie's medical bills? I'd like to see some non-inflammatory honesty in reporting. Disappointing...

[applegrove]

15. It is a Skinny plan that the GOP want for the working and middle class.

Congress did not vote for skinny plans. Republican leaders like them because they make not being upper middle class or more a very precarious existance. At some point being middle class will be so frightening in terms of schooling, healthcare, meat inspection and any goods and services you can buy, and of course no government service of any quality, that rich liberals will vote republican to save their position at access to the only decent products and services and help pull up the ladder to all but other republicans. In india they kill family members because of caste issues they are so panicked by position in society. And i thought the right wing was modeling themselves on saudi arabia. It is looking more and more like india is their model. Plus this ties people to their church instead of government or Obamacare.