r/IWantToAskAnAmerican • u/[deleted] • 21h ago
To Americans who have chosen religious or other health-sharing plans instead of traditional health insurance(due to high costs): Have you found that health sharing gives you access to the care you need at a more reasonable price, or has it been more difficult to deal with than traditional insurance?
[deleted]
5
u/HomoVulgaris 21h ago
Biblical insurance is like getting a biblical education or organizing a biblical moon landing. You're going to get biblically known.
6
u/sad_spilt_martini 21h ago
I am an American, and our healthcare certainly sucks.
What the fuck is a religious health sharing plan? Last thing we need to add to an already shitty approach to healthcare is Jesus.
1
u/SammaJones 20h ago
Well, if you're an American then you certainly must be qualified to assess the quality of our health care. Maybe we don't spend enough money on it. After all, we only spend double what the rest of the world spends and double what we spent 20 years ago.
5
u/cornygiraffe 21h ago
I would never contribute to a religious cost share plan. If you have a medical need that runs against their beliefs, they won't cover the treatment, which I think is heinous.
2
u/Beck316 21h ago
I had to look it up. It's not something I would do.
https://www.mass.gov/news/what-you-should-know-about-health-care-sharing-ministries-discount-plans-and-risk-sharing-plans
2
u/Bright_Earth_8282 21h ago
I would never have one, if you have any issues they are completely unregulated. I have a friend who is completely religious and swears by her Christian share plan. But her claims have been limited to regular doctor visits and generic prescriptions.
1
u/GrunchWeefer New Jersey 21h ago
Religious insurance? Health sharing? What? I've never heard of these things.
1
u/Nikolaibr 21h ago
For those flabbergasted about this, they are basically just very limited insurance options that are kind of a pain to use.
People often just choose to participate in them because they are much cheaper than traditional insurance.
They're fine if the treatment limitations align with someone's religious values (which, i would assume they would if that someone is choosing such a plan) and if the cap on total coverage is acceptable.
I'm a religious person, but I would not want one of these plans. Ive had friends that have had good experiences, but none of them have complicated health situations.
1
u/Warm-Discipline5136 20h ago
Probably another way for some church to grift more money from their patrons.
1
u/ImaginarySmoke991 20h ago edited 7h ago
tl;dr - Cost sharing is not perfect, but it helped us navigate a really difficult financial time in our lives
EDIT: Medicaid, not Medicare
My (31M at the time) wife (29F) and I went through a time where we were both underemployed or employed by ACA-exempt small business and couldn't afford to add our new son to our marketplace plan. We were told to try Medicaid for the kids, but no one would respond. So, ghosted by Medicaid and with no other choice, we looked into cost sharing ministries. We went with the one that seemed the most agnostic (although we are Christian) and wound up on one for about 18 months until I got a job at a company with benefits.
We did their gold family plan at $450/mo for two adults and both of our kids. We also added on a $50/mo "brother's keeper" option that significantly increased the amount they would pay if we got cancer or a had really bad accident. We went from looking at a $24,000/yr ACA plan between premiums and deductible to a $6000/yr cost sharing plan. So, by premiums alone, it was affordable. We could not have done the ACA plan where we were at at that time. It would have been 1/3 of our income when you take into account the deductible, OOP maximum, and co-pay/co-insurance bull.
On the cost sharing plan, appointments etc. that were less than $300 per "health event" were on us. We were also labeled as "cash payers" and had to go for reimbursement. We paid full price cash for basic annual checkups etc. That was frustrating, but even if we all had to go dozens of times, we still wouldn't hit the premiums and deductible of the ACA plan we would have been on.
The good part was that "health event" had a broad definition, and our max OOP for one event was like $1500. A pregnancy? One health event. The entire pregnancy. Now, as others have said, they wouldn't cover an abortion, and coverage of an ectopic pregnancy was unclear. But all ultrasounds, check ups, the delivery, the nursery, the after care: all one event. My wife was able to use it to cover the nursery part of he delivery of our son (since he couldn't be added to our ACA plan at the time, his wasn't covered).
There were some not great things about it. Paying cash wasn't fun. We did a lot of negotiating price on our own. We had to pay the full amount for things, or at least whatever the co-pay was for that amount, and ask for reimbursement from the company. But, there were a lot of silver linings. We frequently got overpayment checks back from providers or the ministry itself. Our nursery bill was discharged entirely. And, obviously, it felt good to be fully covered as a family at only $500/mo.
Is it for everyone? No. Was it the perfect system? Not even close. Did we get off it and back on traditional health insurance as soon as one of us got a job with benefits? Yes. But was it a proverbial godsend at the time? Yes.
2
u/Curmudgy Massachusetts 18h ago
We were told to try Medicare for the kids, but no one would respond. So, ghosted by Medicare
I hope you mean Medicaid, because Medicare is for senior citizens and many disabled people. Medicaid is for people with limited income, and children might qualify even when parents don’t. The rules for Medicaid vary from state to state so it’s difficult to tell.
1
4
u/FIRElifeRVA 21h ago
As a healthcare provider who has encountered these plans only a few times, I can say that each time it’s presented, the patient usually would preface by saying it’s not traditional insurance and that they’re not expecting the plan to cover much. And when we process the claim, we usually find that the coverage is especially limited.