Last night by a vote of 219-212 the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR3590, which was previously passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve.  They passed the bill without amendment so it now goes to President Obama’s desk.  He is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday.

The bill contains in individual mandate to purchase health insurance, but it also includes an exemption from the penalty for members of health care sharing ministries.  We are thankful for this island of freedom that remains in the legislation for pro-life Christians, and encourage people of faith to seek out information on these ministries and consider joining.

The individual and employer mandates do not take effect until 2014.

Both of our member ministries were featured in a recent news broadcast in Charlotte, NC.  You can watch the video here.

The usual push on regulation is included in the news story, but it’s a good look into how the ministries work as a flyover view.

This time in Dallas:

Bob and Paula Singleton still have the heartfelt, prayer-filled letters that came with payment for Mr. Singleton’s melanoma surgery last year.

“It is so warm and friendlier than an insurance check,” Mrs. Singleton said while reading a well-wish that read “our prayers are with yours that the cancer is totally gone.”

It wasn’t an insurance company at all that covered every last cent of his medical costs, but Christians from all over the country. It was all part of a Christian health care sharing program called Samaritan Ministries.

Read or watch the whole story here.

It promises to be close.

We’re opposing it right now because it does not include protections for health care sharing ministries.  There are protections in the Senate Finance Committee bill, but we’re concerned about them surviving conference committee if they’re not in both bills.

So our members are praying this evening for the bill in its current condition to fail, so that it might come back with a better version for our ministries.

Health reform is necessary.  But it needs to happen without destroying the non-profit, non-insurance solutions that are already working.

More on Healthcare Sharing Ministries « The Enterprise Blog
Earlier, I wondered about the fate of private “Healthcare Sharing Ministries” such as Samaritan Ministries International under healthcare reform. I have now learned that these organizations are treated differently in different ObamaCare proposals floating around Congress. At the moment, there’s an exception for them in the “conceptual language” of the Baucus plan passed by the Senate Finance Committee.

A local Fox station did a piece on member ministry Medi-Share:

Holy alternative to health insurance
They’ve been around for 16 years but they say interest in what they do has increased as many folks are looking to opt out of regular insurance.

How it works is every month members pay into the program. Medi-Share matches those monthly payments with other members medical bills Medi-Share then pays those bills and alerts the families who paid into the plan.

And a Samaritan Ministries member writes an Op-ed in the Altavista, VA Journal:

WWW.WPCVA.COM
Nine years ago, in November of 2000, after several months of research, my wife Cathy and I decided to distance ourselves as far as possible from the health care train wreck. At that time, we joined a health care sharing ministry called Samaritan Ministries International, a group of 13,000-plus households representing about 44,000 people that have chosen to share their medical financial burdens.

Samaritan Ministries is just one of several such organizations that are estimated to include 100,000 in total. Since that November nine years ago, we’ve been blessed with good health, while at the same time we have joyfully helped others in need to the tune of about $30,000. Now Congress wishes to punish us for being prudent, responsible, healthy and compassionate.

As the specter of socialized health care evolved, it became painfully clear that there would be provisions to punish any that should choose to not participate in an approved health insurance plan. That means us.

We’re hopeful that media attention like this will serve our efforts to get an exemption in the final version of whatever health care reform bill comes through congress, similar to the language in the Senate Finance bill that passed committee earlier this week.

‘Medi-Share’ a Bible-based Health Care Option – Health & Science – CBN News – Christian News 24-7 – CBN.com

Here’s a link to the video:

Breaking News | Latest News | Current News – FOXNews.com

James Lansberry (that’s me) will be on Fox & Friends on Thursday morning (10/1) at about 6:45am EDT talking about Samaritan Ministries and health care sharing ministries.  A Samaritan Ministries family will be on the following morning.  Tune in and watch!

Faith Based Health Care for Evangelical Christians – ABC News
When Scott and Rachel Kramer, gospel music makers from outside Peoria, Ill., discovered that their son, Weston, had autism, they spent $30,000 on early-intervention therapy.All of it was paid for by strangers — fellow Christians who sent checks, cards and prayers.

“Sometimes it was just a simple note saying even though we don’t know you, we want you to know that we are thinking of you and we are certainly going to pray for your son,” said Rachel Kramer.

Samaritan Ministries and their members, the Kramers, were featured in a piece last night on ABC World News.  Certainly we expect some reaction, both positive and negative, from the story.  Certainly the segment was much too short to really capture what we do as faith based, non-insurance alternatives.  The news segment certainly does not paint us in the best light, right up to and including the truncating (obviously a mid-sentence cut if you watch it) of my last statement about our methods for protecting our members and ensuring they understand the difference between health care sharing and health insurance.

Some brief thoughts of response to the piece:

• The story talked about a ministry who years ago had been accused of embezzlement.  All of the health care sharing ministries operating now have controls in place to prevent such a thing from happening.  The ministry in the report, Samaritan Ministries, has an elected board who oversee the budget and set salaries for officers.   All of the ministries in the Alliance have an external audit performed annually.
• It is true that there are no guarantees of payment.  That is part of the faith based nature of what we do, and why only people of faith are interested in them.  One doesn’t have to watch much of the news lately, though, to find story after story of where the “guaranteed” insurers are guilty of doing what their policy holder thought they shouldn’t, or guilty of not covering something the policy holder thought was covered.  Because we’re not concerned with policies and contracts our members share in burdens.  We are less concerned about what medical care you choose than how we can help you.  Samaritan Ministries has no consumer complaints filed in any state that they’re aware of, and has file drawers full of letters thanking them for the ministry they’re providing.  No one takes the time to send a thank-you note to an insurance company.  Again–we don’t believe this is for everyone, but it is one option that we’d like to see protected.
• When the reporter was out we spent a great deal of time talking about how the health reform bills could affect health care sharing.  I was surprised that none of that footage made it in to the segment.  We remain concerned about how those who are paying their bills without insurance will be affected by the proposed legislation, and are working to protect our members as the bills are completed.
• People on the internet are already abuzz about how this might work for some cases but not big ones.  All of the ministries have shared needs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single need, and are sharing millions of dollars in needs each month.

Lastly, remember that these ministries are already succeeding in providing charitable, health care help.  Samaritan does not turn away families based on health history.  They provide a sponsorship program to help families who cannot afford the very small share of $285 per month (less for couples and singles).  The membership in a health care sharing ministry is not tied to employment and so it is portable from job to job and from state to state.   Our members are excited about what we do, and they love us.  We’re providing a viable, unique service and helping people with tens of millions of dollars of health care expenses every year.

Please feel free to contact us through the comments or our member ministries’ sites that can be found here (at bottom of page).