Health care sharing’s priorities

Richard Ungar writes at Forbes.com how health insurance companies and government regulations work against and for each other. We don’t agree with his conclusions about the necessity of the Affordable Care Act, but he makes this point about health insurance companies:

They found themselves having to play a very dirty game of hard ball. They would take a customer’s money, with pleasure, right up until the moment the customer had to call upon the insurer to pay off when the customer fell seriously ill. At that point in time, the health insurer would shift its focus to finding ways not to pay for the care the customer had always believed she would get each and every time she sent in a large premium check. [Emphasis in original.]

One of the differences between health insurance and Samaritan Ministries is that SMI looks for ways to be able to help out members rather than ways not to help them. We’re not looking to make a profit from something that may or may not happen (illness) but to provide a way for the Body of Christ to help itself when something does happen. The shares you send to other members go towards verified medical needs.