Maternity guidelines have changed but not our love of babies

Samaritan Ministries loves babies!

After all, members have shared more than 60,000 maternity Needs in the past 30 years. Samaritan also started the Morning Center in 2011, a ministry that provides charitable maternity care to those families that need it.

As a pro-life ministry, it’s been important to us to support maternity Needs and do our best to make having a baby affordable for families.

However, because of health care inflation, maternity costs have increased so much that they are now the highest type of Need shared through Samaritan—twice the amount of bills from cancer Needs and three times the amount of bills from heart Needs. In the past 4½ years, members have shared slightly more than $250 million in Samaritan™ Classic members’ regular maternity Needs.

That means that about $1 in every $5 shared has been going to a maternity Need.

As a result, we’ve had to take some steps to change the maternity sharing Guidelines to stabilize overall sharing among members in Classic.

Surveys have revealed that members’ highest priority is to keep their monthly Share amounts lower. Lower Share amounts are a higher priority to our members than sharing more types of Needs and even rank above avoiding proration.

That’s why we’re asking child-bearing families in Classic to carry more of the financial cost of their maternity Needs. Our new sharing Guidelines for maternity Needs for members in Classic are more in line with what other health care sharing ministries offer as well as the economic realities of maternity costs.

New maternity guidelines

The new guidelines for hospital or birth center maternities include the following for all maternity Needs in Classic that have a due date on or after October 1, 2025:

• A 30 percent co-share after the initial unshareable amount (IUA) of $750 is met, but
• A maximum co-share of $3,000.
• This means a maximum out-of-pocket cost to a member family of $3,750 for a regular maternity Need (when there is no proration).

Needs for home births and vaginal births after caesarean section (VBACs) for members in Classic and Basic also are being updated. For all home births and VBAC Needs started on or after November 1, 2024, the initial unshareable amount and proration will be waived. Members with such Needs with a due date on or after October 1, 2025, will still be required to pay a co-share of up to $3,000.

If these new Guidelines had been in effect for Samaritan Classic maternity Needs from August 2023 through July 2024, the savings on bills shared would have been $3,330,042, or more than $277,000 per month.

We believe this change will keep the Share amount lower for all Classic households. We also believe that because of this change we will need to prorate less frequently and thus, will be able to keep Share increases lower, helping all member households. This change will also help keep our programs stable.

For many years, our maternity sharing has been more generous than any other health care sharing ministry. Even our new maximum out-of-pocket cost to a family in Samaritan™ Classic of $3,750—for maternity Needs with due dates of October 1, 2025, or later—compares favorably to sharing levels of other health care sharing ministries.

These changes are part of an overall effort to improve our programs and keep them sustainable. This year, as part of an effort to keep Share amounts from increasing, we have also:

• Modified the generous limits on physical therapy and supplements.
• Increased the initial unshareable amount for all members in Classic.
• Added waiting periods for the sharing of some conditions for new members.

However, to ease overall burdens and provide value to our members, we also have been able to:

• Start providing telemedicine again for a reasonable cost.
• Provide access to prescription discounts.
• Make discounts available for routine testing and imaging.

Staying healthy

We hope that the wisdom of these changes will be apparent as we work to keep Samaritan Classic—and babies—healthy.

Part of Samaritan’s DNA is bearing the burdens of fellow Christians (Galatians 6:2). We understand that, for some families, this Guidelines change in maternity sharing may result in financial burdens. We ask that those members who won’t be affected as much by these changes consider giving to our Member Assistance Fund to help some families who may be affected, keeping 1 Corinthians 12 in mind, that when one part of the Body of Christ suffers, all parts suffer.

Jesus is our ultimate provider, so we pray that our members will see these changes in maternity sharing for members in Classic as an exercise of His provision and guidance.

We also will continue to rejoice with member families over every new life.