Why SMI? Good conscience, good stewardship

Nathan Maxwell of ITonRamp.com signed up for an HMO for his health care as a young adult, paying about $80 a month.

“I thought that was a good idea and responsible, but as I looked at that and realized what that money was going to support and what was happening with that money from an abortion standpoint, that just didn’t feel responsible or morally right,” he says. “So Samaritan greatly appealed to us.”

He and his wife, Melanie, made the switch to health care sharing when they joined Samaritan Ministries in 2002.

His parents, Steve and Teri Maxwell of Titus2.com, had long been members of another health care sharing ministry, so Nathan was familiar with the concept.

Samaritan members have come through for Nathan and Melanie as they have suffered through miscarriages, the death of a baby, and other difficult pregnancies.

“With our first child, who we lost, we would have had well over $100,000 in costs and, therefore, debt as a result of that,” Nathan says. “Between discounts (more than $85,000 off a $112,000 bill), and member’s sharing, all bills were paid.”

The next baby, Abigail, had to spend time in a hospital’s neo-natal intensive care unit, which also resulted in a large bill that was greatly reduced, with the rest of the expenses being shared by Samaritan members.

“God has so used Samaritan for us,” Nathan says. “When people ask us, ‘Does it work?’ we wholeheartedly tell them, ‘Yes, for a fact it does, Samaritan members have been there for us.’”

After losing their first baby, Melanie expected to bounce back strongly and have an easier pregnancy, “but that’s not actually how it worked,” he says.

“We didn’t plan on bed rest (both at home and in the hospital), we didn’t plan on seeing specialists every other week, we didn’t plan on an emergency caesarean section,” Nathan says. “Our plans were very different from how things worked out, so Samaritan members sharing our needs has been a tremendous blessing because costs for these medical services are sky-high.”

His brother, Christopher, who also works with ITonRamp, joined Samaritan in 2010 with his wife, Anna.

“We love the fact that the money is going to a brother or sister in Christ,” he says. “The lower cost is icing on the cake.”

Yet another Maxwell is a Samaritan member—Sarah, who works for Titus2.com as a blogger, photographer and behind-the-scenes specialist. She also is an author, writing the ministry’s Moody Family Series of books about a Christian homeschool family.