HCSM Myth #2: They’re like insurance

From the beginning of health care sharing ministries, objections to the system have been raised that do not reflect reality. To help clear up these misunderstandings, we’re running a series of posts over the next several weeks that dispel those myths.

Myth #2: Health care sharing ministries are like insurance.

Reality: Since Samaritan Ministries, like other health care sharing ministries, is not insurance, neither do we work like insurance works.

Rather than pay a premium to a company, members send monthly shares directly to other member families who have submitted needs that qualify for sharing. In other words, Samaritan and other health care sharing ministries are arrangements in which Christians assist one another with medical expenses through voluntary giving.

There are other ways in which Samaritan is unlike insurance:

An insurance company provides you a contract spelling out its maximum legal obligation to pay some portion of your medical bills depending on whether you went to their preferred provider and all the insurer’s procedures were followed. HCS is a ministry where God gives through His people to abundantly provide for all needs.

We do not assess applicants’ health risks, because neither the ministry nor the members are assuming financial liability for any other member’s risk.

We are not licensed or registered by any insurance board or department, since we are not practicing the business of insurance.

We are a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 religious organization, meaning no shareholders or investors need to be satisfied.

For the above reasons, 16 states have laws clarifying that HCSMs are not providing insurance and not subject to insurance requirements, requirements which would destroy their ministry approach.

Perhaps most importantly, unlike insurance, the focus of Samaritan Ministries’ need sharing is not on what you can receive financially if you have a need in the future, but on how you can help others with the needs they have right now (Acts 20:35). Samaritan members try to build authentic Christian community through prayer, encouragement and support.

Our security is not in some legal contract or reserve fund, but rather in the provision of the Lord God, and in the integrity and good will of our fellow members of the Body of Christ.