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

[SummerMadness]

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

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."

More than one million Americans, struggling to cope with the rising cost of health insurance, have joined such groups, attracted by prices that are far lower than the premiums for policies that must meet strict requirements, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, established by the Affordable Care Act. The groups say they permit people of a common religious or ethical belief to share medical costs, and many were grandfathered in under the federal health care law mainly through a religious exemption.

These Christian nonprofit groups offer far lower rates because they are not classified as insurance and are under no legal obligation to pay medical claims. They generally decline to cover people with pre-existing illnesses. They can set limits on how much their members will pay, and they can legally refuse to cover treatments for specialties like mental health.

Pay less for no coverage!

 

[grasping the after wind]

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


Pay less for no coverage!

I would advise against doing that.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

This should be illegal IMHO.

 

[grasping the after wind]

This should be illegal IMHO.

Why?

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Why?

According to the OP, Blake's family thought that his medical bills would be paid. But, the organization fudged saying they never guaranteed payment. Sounds like theft to me. Theft by deception.

 

[section9+1]

People need to know up front what they're getting into before they sign on. But if they are fully informed, shouldn't be anything wrong with it.

 

[SummerMadness]

The groups market themselves as if they are insurance, but they are unregulated groups that do not provide adequate coverage.

From the article:

Families who have joined the groups recount winding up with medical bills not covered by the ministries, with no legal way to appeal decisions to reject coverage for care. Some groups ask their members to push hospitals and doctors to write off their bills rather than use members' money to pay their expenses.

"These plans offer a false sense of security," said Jenny Chumbley Hogue, who runs an insurance agency in the north Dallas area of Texas. She refuses to offer them to her clients.

Several states have taken action against one ministry they say has deceived people about what they are buying. "The nature of what we're hearing from consumers around the state is absolutely heart breaking," said Kate Harris, chief deputy insurance commissioner in Colorado, one of the states that is trying to prevent the ministry from operating there.
​

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

People need to know up front what they're getting into before they sign on. But if they are fully informed, shouldn't be anything wrong with it.

Agree to a point. Obviously the family in the OP was either misled or they misunderstood the limit.Also the organization reportedly SAID there was no guarantee of payment. IMHO that is just WRONG!

 

[thecolorsblend]

.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

It's like nobody ever read The Rainmaker.

Heck, they made a movie about it. And it even starred Matt Damon and Claire Danes, for crying out loud. Good little movie too. Not the best of all the Grisham movies but still pretty solid.

And, people let other people make their decisions for them.

 

[thecolorsblend]

.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

You're right, people should read The Rainmaker more.

Remember, children, this could be you! Get real health insurance.

 

[keith99]

I'm glad to see that those in this thread so far that are condemning this sort of fraud by nominally Christian groups are all Christians.

 

[Hammster]

I have a friend who is self-employed that uses a similar plan. So far it’s covered everything, even a major incident. So it looks as if not all of these groups operate the same way.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

I have a friend who is self-employed that uses a similar plan. So far it’s covered everything, even a major incident. So it looks as if not all of these groups operate the same way.

There should at least be a uniform standard of operation for all such groups.

 

[Hammster]

There should at least be a uniform standard of operation for all such groups.

I wouldn’t disagree.

And let’s be honest. Just because something has “Christian” attached to it doesn’t necessarily make it so.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Amen to your last statement.

 

[grasping the after wind]

According to the OP, Blake's family thought that his medical bills would be paid. But, the organization fudged saying they never guaranteed payment. Sounds like theft to me. Theft by deception.

Where in the article di it say that Blake's bills were not paid by the organization? What I saw was that the author speculated that the total bills would exceed $250,000 which is the cap this particular organization has set for reimbursement. That the organization advises people that "there is no coverage, no guarantee of payment". I assume from the way it is placed in the article that this happens when they sign up. People sign up for this to save money gambling that they won't need more funds than what they will receive if they need health care. though I find doing that unwise, I do not only not see a need to outlaw a voluntary relationship between consenting parties, I find the idea of doing so something grossly authoritarian. If an organization defrauds anyone that, in itself, is already illegal. Outlawing a voluntarily entered into agreement seems an overreaction to the possibility one of the parties to such an agreement may be dishonest. Especially as the dishonesty would be prosecutable as it is. If we were to outlaw any voluntarily entered into agreement based upon the fact one party might possibly decide to defraud the other we could not have any voluntarily entered into agreements as that type of dishonesty is always a possibility . No marriage, no home improvement contracts, no retail sales etc. etc.

 

[JackRT]

Winston Churchill said: "The Americans will always do the right thing ---- after all other possibilities have been tried and found wanting".

I am sure that sooner or later the USA will move to a universal single payer medical care system similar to that in Canada. It will be opposed, perhaps even violently so, by the vested interests but the people will demand it.

 

[Jimmy D]

Winston Churchill said: "The Americans will always do the right thing ---- after all other possibilities have been tried and found wanting".

I am sure that sooner or later the USA will move to a universal single payer medical care system similar to that in Canada. It will be opposed perhaps even violently so by the vested interests but the people will demand it.

The figures quoted in the OP are absolutely astonishing to me.