We believe Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Provider for all of life’s needs. Individuals and families have the primary responsibility for their own health and decisions related to seeking health care. When they have burden that are greater than they can bear, we firmly believe that the body of Christ, at the local church level first, and then in a broad corporate sense, should bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

No. Insurance is usually thought of as a contract whereby one party agrees to be legally responsible for and accept another party’s risk of loss, in exchange for a payment called a premium. Samaritan Ministries is an arrangement whereby Christians share to assist one another with medical expenses through voluntary giving. We are not licensed or registered by any insurance board or department, since we are not practicing the business of insurance. We do not assess applicants’ health risks, because neither the ministry nor the members are assuming financial liability for any other member’s risk. Unlike insurance, the focus of Samaritan Ministries’ need sharing is not on what you can receive financially if you have a need, but on how you can help others with the needs they have right now (Acts 20:35).

When health care costs are paid by someone other than the person receiving care, typically an insurance company or the government, the Biblical model outlined in question 1 can be undermined. We believe many of the current problems with the health care system are the direct result of restricting personal freedom and responsibility through dependence on third-party payers. The Christian Health Care Newsletter is designed to allow Christians to help one another while maintaining personal responsibility.

As stated in the answer to question 2, Samaritan Ministries is not an insurance company, so we have no premiums. Insurance companies collect premiums that they keep until the money is needed for claims. From these funds they also pay all salaries and other operating expenses, build office buildings, pay executive bonuses and dividends, etc. Policy holders must sort through company reports to know how much of their money actually goes to pay for medical treatments.

Members of Samaritan Ministries retain possession of their money until it is needed. Then they are assigned a monthly share that they send, not to the ministry, but directly to another member who has a qualified medical need. They know how much of their money is going for medical needs from the moment they put their share in the mail.

When someone joins Samaritan Ministries, they are asked to send an administrative fee and the monthly share for their first three months to the Samaritan office. After that, only the administrative fee is sent to the office once each year. Samaritan members can always know how much of their money is being used for administrative costs and how much goes for actual medical needs. A financial audit of ministry operations is conducted by an outside, independent C.P.A. each year to maintain integrity in how administrative money is handled.

As explained in the answer to question 2, one reason Samaritan Ministries is not an insurance company is that there is no transfer of risk. This means that when a member receives medical care, there is no claim that is owed. There is simply a medical need. Samaritan members send proof of their medical expenses to the Samaritan Ministries office where they are evaluated according to the Guidelines, to make sure they qualify for publication. Then the qualified needs are published in a monthly newsletter mailing where each active member is asked to share in another member’s medical need. Again, this giving is voluntary and does not involve any legal obligation (claim) on the ministry or the other members.

The concept of a deductible indicates that there are some amounts for which you are responsible, and some amounts for which an insurance company is responsible. In a sharing ministry each member is always responsible for his own medical expenses.

Once again, Samaritan Ministries does not offer insurance, so our procedures are different. At Samaritan, a medical need involving less than $300 is not considered publishable. When the need goes over $300, the amount from $300 to $250,000 is publishable. (The amount of a need that exceeds $250,000 can be eligible for sharing if the member also joins Samaritans’ Save to Share™.) If a member household has more than three publishable needs in any 12 month period, the first $300 is also published for the fourth, and any subsequent needs in that period.

Sometimes we can overlap needs from two months so that there is enough money for all the needs. However, if all needs cannot be met, we use a prorating method to evenly distribute the burden. For example, if there is only enough share money for 90 percent of the needs submitted for a particular month, only 90 percent of each need would be published. See Section VI.E in the Guidelines, "Balancing Needs and Shares/ Proration" for more details.

Members must be professing Christians who attend church regularly. They must agree to abstain from sinful practices such as drug abuse and sexual immorality. They must be accountable to a pastor or other church leader for the needs they submit. For a detailed statement of requirements, consult Section I in the Guidelines.

Each member household pays an annual $170 membership fee. Also, each month every member sends a monthly share to another member. Currently, a single member (one person) shares $135; a couple (two members of the same nuclear family) shares $270; a single-parent family (widowed, divorced, or legally separated) with children shares $200; and a two-parent family (three or more members of the same nuclear family) shares $320.

The monthly share is reduced for a young adult/Christian college student. Those amounts are as follows: a single member (one person) shares $99; a couple (two members of the same nuclear family) shares $199; a single-parent family (widowed, divorced, or legally separated) with children shares $149; and a two-parent family (three or more members of the same nuclear family) shares $249. See Section III.C in the Guidelines for more details.

The monthly share is also reduced $30 per month for each member of the household who is age 65 or older.

A sponsorship program exists to provide for those whose financial situation might otherwise hinder their ability to participate. See Section V.C in the Guidelines for more details.

The maximum publishable amount for each need is $250,000. The need has to meet our Guidelines before it can be published. SMI members are also eligible to participate in another sharing ministry, Save to Share™, where the rest of needs over $250,000 may be shared.

In general, needs for illnesses or injuries resulting in visits to medical doctors, emergency rooms, testing facilities, or hospitals are publishable on a per person per incident basis. See Sections VI-IX of the Guidelines for more details.

Needs for conditions that existed prior to your membership are usually not published. There is limited sharing of maternity needs related to a conception prior to membership. Most dental, optical and motor vehicle (including motorized boats and aircraft) injury related needs are not shared in the basic ministry (but members may choose to share in motor vehicle injury related needs through a separate, optional program, SamaritanMV™). A detailed explanation of the limitations on needs published is found in Sections VIII and IX of the Guidelines.

For a pregnancy that begins after the start of your membership, maternity needs are published like any other need. For a pregnancy that began prior to your membership, the amount published is generally limited to the amount of shares you have sent from the beginning of the mother’s membership. See Section IX in the Guidelines for more details.

The types of needs that qualify for publication can be found in the Guidelines. Consult Section X to familiarize yourself with the general procedures for submitting your need and Sections VI-IX for the specific requirements for publishing certain types of needs. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call your Member Services team at 877-764-2426.

SamaritanMV™ is a separate, optional sharing ministry that members can join if they would like to share in needs related to on-road motor vehicles, motorized aircraft, and motorized watercraft. See page 26 for complete SamaritanMV™ Guidelines.

You explain to your care providers (doctors, hospitals, etc.) that you do not have insurance and that you are a self-pay patient. The providers send their bills directly to you. You organize the bills, complete a Need Processing Form, and submit them to Samaritan Ministries. We will publish your need in our newsletter mailing, and the members assigned to your need will be asked to send their monthly shares directly to you through the mail. You then use the money you receive to pay your bills.

Sometimes reductions in charges are obtained after the full amount of a need has already been assigned to the members, and the member with the need receives more than he still owes on his bills. Because these shares were given in trust that they would be used only for the medical need being published, a member receiving money has the responsibility to be faithful to that trust by seeing that any extra is sent to another member with an unmet need or to the Samaritan Ministries’ office to assist with the cost of negotiating the reductions. The SMI administrative office directs the members where to send any extra shares they receive.

Because members understand our mutual sharing as a giving ministry, sometimes they give more than their share amount in a variety of ways. One way extra giving occurs is by members sending more than the assigned amount to those in need. These extra gifts from members are meant for those to whom they are given and are not expected to be sent on to anyone else.

The publishing turnaround time is normally 30-60 days from receipt of your bills and required information. If your Need Processing Form is correct and complete, your need will be published at the beginning of the second month after we receive your need. For example, a need received by the end of September would be processed in October and published at the beginning of November.

We’ll send you a checklist so that you can keep track of who was assigned to send to your need. If we learn that someone on your list has stopped sharing as an active member and will not be sending to you, that amount will be reassigned in the following month to a member who is actively sharing. Members who are not actively sharing in the needs of other members will not be eligible to have their own needs published.

As of November 2009, we have more than 13,800 households.

Yes, and we currently have missionary members from all over the world. We request that missionaries have a state-side contact to receive the monthly newsletter and to send out their monthly share.

No, we have chosen not to have any sharing provision for deaths.

We incorporated as an Illinois not-for-profit organization in September 1991. The next three years were dedicated to research and development. We have been actively sharing needs since September 1994.

If you call 1-888-268-4377 we will attempt to provide names and numbers of members in your area who have had a need published.

Members of Samaritan Ministries have been sharing needs since 1994, and they have seen God provide not only for financial needs, but also for physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Even though this is true, we are required to warn you that the past performance of SMI members assisting one another is not:

1. A promise/contract by SMI or its members that SMI or the members will contribute toward a need you might have in the future;
2. In the eyes of the law any indication of whether our members actually would contribute toward a need you might have in the future.

Samaritan Ministries’ Christian Health Care Newsletter is a Christian health care sharing ministry and is not restricted from operating in any of the fifty United States, any U.S. territory, or any foreign country, and has no legal barriers of which we are aware.