Why SMI? 'A sincere regard for the member'
By Andie Dill · Feb 18, 2022
Serving the people of the Philippines, Matt and Krystina McNeil were looking for affordable health care.
“As missionaries, it is very hard to get health insurance overseas,” Matt states. “There are organizations that provide it, but it is very expensive.”
The McNeil family first learned about Samaritan Ministries through an ad in a magazine.
“When I looked into Samaritan, I really felt that it was family-focused, and I could tell by the way it was put together that a lot of prayer had gone into it and that there really was a genuine and sincere regard for the member,” Matt says.
Not that there weren’t questions about how everything would work for the Mindanao-based missionaries, 7,000 miles from American shores.
“The mechanics of how a Need would work was an initial concern I had when we first considered Samaritan while living overseas,” Matt says. “Thankfully the logistics were not complicated at all. When we had a Need, we merely paid for the medical charges on our credit card, then the Shares from Samaritan members were mailed to our U.S. mailing address. Our representative in the U.S. then deposited those checks into our U.S. bank account, which we used to pay off the credit card charges—all done online.”
As members for nearly 12 years, the McNeils now recommend Samaritan to every woman who trains at Newlife International School of Midwifery to be an overseas missionary midwife.
“I have found that Samaritan Ministries is very member-centric versus policy-centric,” Matt says.
“Through the years my family has had a few needs for minor surgeries, and the staff at Samaritan has been incredibly gracious in ministering to us and not just regarding us as a number or process. We have been thrilled with it.”
Andie Dill is a Communications Specialist at Samaritan Ministries.