Christian Health Ministries
- Thread starter MrBigD117
- Start date
I have one of these plans.
Every bill has been repriced, just like my old UHC plan did. (UHC plan ending soon despite Obama claiming I could keep it...so I jumped ship a few months early).
The network is great. Every major hospital in my area is covered. Every one of our doctors is covered. That's more than I can say for some of the insurance plans available on the exchange...
I pay $200 monthly for my family of 4.
My wife is 6 months pregnant and we've already been pre-paying her OBGYN for delivery, etc. Even those bills-in-advance are getting repriced. Things are set up just fine with the hospital to be admitted when the time is here.
Our hospital will give 25% off the bill for paying in full. I know this from when my last son was born. It'll be a few thousand - no big deal.
I personally like the fact that my $ isn't going to pay the bills of those involved in a car wreck while DUI, drug overdose treatments, maternity bills for pregnancy out of wedlock, abortions, lung cancer for smokers, etc.
Call it "judgmental" all you want. It keeps costs down.
Will I consider switching back to regular insurance? Of course I will. But for now, this is better than a ridiculous premium and a tiny tiny network requiring doctor changes.
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Having said all that... I'm a med Supp guy. Not indy health. I don't know the individual market options well at all. I've never sold a non-medicare health plan.
There may be something great out there that I just don't know about, or a big thing I'm missing about some flaw in my current set-up, but from what I saw on Healthcare dot gov, I was not impressed with the alternatives.
Every bill has been repriced, just like my old UHC plan did. (UHC plan ending soon despite Obama claiming I could keep it...so I jumped ship a few months early).
The network is great. Every major hospital in my area is covered. Every one of our doctors is covered. That's more than I can say for some of the insurance plans available on the exchange...
I pay $200 monthly for my family of 4.
My wife is 6 months pregnant and we've already been pre-paying her OBGYN for delivery, etc. Even those bills-in-advance are getting repriced. Things are set up just fine with the hospital to be admitted when the time is here.
Our hospital will give 25% off the bill for paying in full. I know this from when my last son was born. It'll be a few thousand - no big deal.
I personally like the fact that my $ isn't going to pay the bills of those involved in a car wreck while DUI, drug overdose treatments, maternity bills for pregnancy out of wedlock, abortions, lung cancer for smokers, etc.
Call it "judgmental" all you want. It keeps costs down.
Will I consider switching back to regular insurance? Of course I will. But for now, this is better than a ridiculous premium and a tiny tiny network requiring doctor changes.
----------
Having said all that... I'm a med Supp guy. Not indy health. I don't know the individual market options well at all. I've never sold a non-medicare health plan.
There may be something great out there that I just don't know about, or a big thing I'm missing about some flaw in my current set-up, but from what I saw on Healthcare dot gov, I was not impressed with the alternatives.
- 10,856
Thats the biggest load of BS ever. I have past experience with association plans covering congregations. Those "good church going people" had some of the worst claims ratios ever... much worse than most other groups. And you would be surprised how many of those claims were for "immoral" acts... such as drinking, smoking, DUIs, etc. And that is not even speaking of the higher than average rate of chronic health conditions (usually self inflicted by eating habits).
Btw, pregnancy out of wedlock costs the same as any other pregnancy.
Also, those "immoral expenses" you mentioned, are a tiny fraction of the expense of eating fried chicken and mashed potatoes each Wed at the church potluck.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with the Health Sharing Ministry if you understand that its not real insurance and that they can deny any claim at any time.... and that there is zero oversight to make sure they are financially sound or doing what they say they are doing with the money.
Imo, they are a house of cards waiting to implode. From an actuarial point of view, there is no way they are sustainable long term. The way they operate internally is very similar to a ponzi scheme.
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Any hospital here will give 20% off a planned admission. This is off the patients portion which has already been discounted. I forget what the billed/allowed ratio is but certainly more than 25% across the board.
A routine pregnancy is a relatively easy scenario to deal with. A premature birth is not. These types of plans only crash when people get really sick. I hear "I've never had a problem" all the time. What happens when things are normal isn't the issue. You could budget for a normal pregnancy. It costs less than a car. Let the **** hit the fan really hard and messy then report on how well the plan holds up.
I tell my brethren at church to be careful dealing with people and organizations operating under the Christian label. Many are not. Many others act as if they are not. Friends that wait tables tell me that the Sunday church crowd tips poorly. It is common knowledge among fleamarket vendors that a check with a fish or cross is likely to bounce. The only bad checks I ever took at a market had religious emblems.
Back to ins: premiums are the only source from which claims are paid. Underwriting, youth, pre-ex and other contract restrictions all reduce claims. Premiums must always be mote than claims. Whatever contract a person buys is fine so long as they understand what they have. Regardless of price and how well they have paid claims, it is not insurance. Carriers charge low premiums when they are not required to pay claims.
A routine pregnancy is a relatively easy scenario to deal with. A premature birth is not. These types of plans only crash when people get really sick. I hear "I've never had a problem" all the time. What happens when things are normal isn't the issue. You could budget for a normal pregnancy. It costs less than a car. Let the **** hit the fan really hard and messy then report on how well the plan holds up.
I tell my brethren at church to be careful dealing with people and organizations operating under the Christian label. Many are not. Many others act as if they are not. Friends that wait tables tell me that the Sunday church crowd tips poorly. It is common knowledge among fleamarket vendors that a check with a fish or cross is likely to bounce. The only bad checks I ever took at a market had religious emblems.
Back to ins: premiums are the only source from which claims are paid. Underwriting, youth, pre-ex and other contract restrictions all reduce claims. Premiums must always be mote than claims. Whatever contract a person buys is fine so long as they understand what they have. Regardless of price and how well they have paid claims, it is not insurance. Carriers charge low premiums when they are not required to pay claims.
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- 10,856
I waited tables for years before getting into insurance. That is 100% true. Sunday after church lunch crowd was by far the worst tippers ever. I started working the kitchen on Sunday lunch because the tips were so bad. Some people (who normally would tip when they came in) would just leave a tract as the "tip".
Obviously not all of them were like that... but unfortunately a very large amount of them were... and I worked at a nice restaurant.
Unfortunately, most do not actually believe (or act like) God is always watching. Would Jesus have given a 10% tip to a single mom on a sunday morning?? (which would work out to much less than the minimum wage) Because that happens thousands of times every sunday at lunch after church lets out.
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Back to insurance. Working the Sunday crowd also showed me the eating habits of those "good people". Lots of artery clogging calories for them and the little ones.... "more bread and diet crack please". Not the risk pool I want my policy associated with.
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Great.
What happens if you are a non-smoker and get lung cancer? That's 10-20% of lung cancer diagnosis.
What about the women who are raped and get pregnant while on your plan? SO happy your premium dollars don't go to help those women.
.
The lack of government oversight on these plans is frightening, I agree, its a Ponzi scheme
- 10,856
What about all of the addicts and wrong doers that turn to the church for salvation? I guess their health takes a turn for the better along with their conscience. Look at the amount of recovered alcoholics who get religion... those livers are shot.
Good. Those claims can be denied.
- 10,856
So can all the others.
And they can be denied only if the cause can be proven. Lots of accidents and health conditions are caused by substance abuse but never reported to be such. Same for health conditions. Unless Christian Health Ministries are taking hair follicle samples of claimants, they dont know what they dont know.
I'd like to selectively opt out of a few things. I happen to think that our war machine sucks up too much money (twice as much as the rest of the world combined), it unleashed not in ways that actually helps people but in ways that frequently hurts those we should be helping and causes many to hate us. I have a cabin it what's nicknamed "Shotgun County" and surmise that the residents would use their AKs against any foreign army that occupies as we have others. They'd probably be considered "terrorists" by the occupiers.
I note that the 911 pilots were from our allies the Saudis who by the way still have capital punishment in the form of public beheadings. Of course, money errr oil talks and we protect that above all.
Don't take any of the above as being against our side. I'n not but am pointing out that you pays your money and it is spent. Join the Christian health if you want but don't expect it to be handled with more integrity than anything else. Do expect it to fall apart if claims become too high to easily support which is likely to happen - especially if you get really sick.
I note that the 911 pilots were from our allies the Saudis who by the way still have capital punishment in the form of public beheadings. Of course, money errr oil talks and we protect that above all.
Don't take any of the above as being against our side. I'n not but am pointing out that you pays your money and it is spent. Join the Christian health if you want but don't expect it to be handled with more integrity than anything else. Do expect it to fall apart if claims become too high to easily support which is likely to happen - especially if you get really sick.
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