Samaritan’s Ministries is a Christian Medical Sharing organization which requires that it’s members be a professing Christians according to the Bible, live a Christian lifestyle (no drugs, no sexual behavior outside of marriage, and no drinking to drunkenness), and attend church regularly. I’m actually currently doing this for myself because this was much cheaper than the maternity rider on our insurance policy and it will cover homebirths. I did not have this when the last FindingOurWay was born because the idea hadn’t occurred to me until we had some minor complications during his pregnancy.
When you join Samaritan’s Ministries, you commit to sending a share to a different family in need each month. You also commit to praying for this family’s medical situation and sending words of encouragement with your check.
Samaritan Ministries will not share cost of routine care for preventative care, routine care for chronic illnesses, pre-existing conditions, or any cost that is under $300 per incident. In theory, everything over the first $300 per incident is shared. However, there are months where the sharing is prorated and everyone whose expenses were shared that month will not have a percentage of their needs shared. The scary part is that if you end up being responsible for 20% of $250,000, that is a lot of money. The good news about this is that their plan is sustainable. We will be trusting God to protect us from financial turmoil due to medical bills.
Members are given incentive to negotiate reductions in bills on their own and the ministry itself will attempt negotiate reductions of bills in excess of $1,000. When our youngest FindingOurWay was born, (before Samaritan Ministries was in the picture), we were required by our pediatrician to get him blood tested for Group B strep. When we got the final EOB for the test after it was run through our insurance, the test cost $50. We were waiting for the bill when the lab called MrLivingOurWay and demanded to be paid. No problem, he explained that EOB had at first said we didn't owe anything because of the way the claim was filed and then aother had come saying that we owed $50. The person on the phone put him on hold and reduced the bill without him outright asking. He was surprised. He had no idea that it could be that easy to negotiate a bill.
For a family of any size the cost is $320/month (cheaper for singles and single parent households) which covers up to $250,000 in medical expenses per incident. There is an option to particpate in their Save to Share program without limit as to what might be reimbursed. When this is added in as well as the annual administrative fees, the total cost is about $350/month per family.
So our family will pay about $4,200/year to Samaritan Ministries.
If your family also chooses this route, please be sure to mention us as a referral as they have a very generous referral program.
Do you have any experiences with Samaritan Ministries or the other Christian medical cost sharing ministries?
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I have no experience with this, but I read a blog, Amish Stores, which features an Old Order Mennonite woman each week. She talked about their insurance. Church leaders visit members' homes with a bag. Each family puts what they can afford into the bag. No one know who gives what unless they write a check. The church leaders then give out the money as families need. I thought it sounded like an excellent system.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, is is sort of similar and that's what I like about it. We have the option to donate to situations that aren't usually covered such as pre-existing conditions and are able to also donate more on months that when all the needs are not able to be met. If we are able, we donate to both.
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