Why SMI? Fedorykas like 'prayer requests and accountability'
By Michael Miller · Mar 20, 2024
Read about the Fedorykas' band Scythian.
As self-employed musicians in the band Scythian, Danylo and Alexander Fedoryka started looking for health care when the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was instituted.
As Ukrainian Catholics, though, they didn’t “want to be involved in abortion or contraception or other craziness,” Danylo said.
“A friend of mine worked for CMF-CURO (a Catholic health care ministry), and I found out that it offers health care sharing through Samaritan Ministries,” Danylo said. “It was so appealing to me that basically we’re all bearing each other’s burdens. So, I signed up and was so blown away. I had some dental work that was shared as a Special Prayer Need and got 20 to 30 checks in the mail with notes that said, 'We hope this can help with some of your expenses, God bless you.' Just that personal touch for a Need that wasn't even shared as a regular Need was my initial experience at Samaritan.
“I’ll never do it differently.”
Alexander joined on Danylo's recommendation, and Samaritan immediately resonated with him, too.
Health care “went from having a transactional, almost sterile feel to something with a sense of community,” he said.
“It shifted my entire perspective on what health care meant for family and community,” Alexander said.
The accountability that members are held to as part of the Body of Christ also impressed him.
“That does affect the way our health care will work,” Alexander said. “It’s not simply, ‘I’m not going to change my lifestyle—just give me a pill.’ I don’t like that sense of the health care industry.”
The prayer requests and accountability are “the way it should be lived out, encouraging each other in prayer and in behavior.”
Having the freedom to challenge medical bills they receive and otherwise engage with providers is something else that Danylo appreciates.
“It has made me feel more involved,” he said. “I feel a sense of responsibility. Even the ability to price shop. It’s just stewardship, which I appreciate.”