Everyone knows that health care is very expensive. When you have a couple kids, especially when they are active insurance premiums add up quickly. I have tried multiple avenues to minimize our costs while maintaining adequate medical coverage.
Our church does not provide insurance or benefits so this has been a major puzzle over the last several years. We have had a major medical policy with an HSA, however having a $10,000 deductible for the family does not seem like adequate care and gave me some sleepless nights. We were never able to save up enough money each month to go into the HSA so we could pay for routine health visits. One year we did pick up an accident insurance policy through the kids school which was very reasonable and provided quality coverage for any injury or accident while enrolled in the local district (24/7). That helped me sleep a little better at night. However when I stepped back and took a good look at it, paying around $450 a month for incredibly high deductible just wasn't cutting it…and we are a pretty healthy family. I took a look at our denominational plan and it was very good coverage but too expensive. My guess is that the plan is based on churches supplementing the cost at some level for their employees.
My current experiment is in 'health care sharing.' I have read Christianity Today for years and saw the ad in the magazine so I decided to try them out. (No I do not receive any money from them). About 6 months ago we signed up with a company called Medi-Share. For about the same monthly fee as our previous high deductible we receive much better medical coverage. Medi-Share is quick to point out that they are not an insurance company…and they are not. I have always been willing to accept new ideas so this is not hard for me to live with. This is a non-profit organization that treats medical care like a ministry or service. Medi-Share will cover the new health care law that everyone will have to carry health care or be taxed. They do not cover for behaviors outside the scope of Christian values and you need to know that going in, in fact you have to sign statements agreeing with their coverage policies and they are very specific about what they will not even consider covering. My wife and I read through these policies and determined that we felt comfortable with them, this is something you will have to do on your own.
We signed up and have been impressed with this company. We have had to use a doctor, paid the co-pay and that was it. We were given some tests that we needed and we called the lab and would have received deep discounts, ones we would have been comfortable with (ended up not getting the lab work done, it was our decision). The bottom line is that we have received quality care, pay the same and I can sleep at night. If you are in the same ministry/self-employed health care boat, you may want to check out Medi-Share (believe me, I will update if we have a bad experience with them.)
A link to use for Medi-Share (full disclosure, we receive a $100 gift card if you sign up) is here http://bit.ly/2beoYe1 .
If you are not receiving benefits from your Church, how have you solved the health care problem?
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