Samaritan’s Ministries is a Christian health sharing program that is a great program for those that need health insurance but are no longer finding traditional insurance a benefit. There are a few factors that people use to discredit Samaritan’s and the main one is that there is no legal obligation or guaranteed financial protection for them to pay your bills. But is Samaritan’s a legitimate way to have health insurance coverage? It is more than legitimate, it is a great option for the right person.
Self-Pay Program
The first reason to use Samaritans is that it is a self-pay program which means that you get the no-insurance (forget premiums) price from your doctor’s visits. It is not a traditional insurance, and the way it is set up, you have to submit all bills to the sharing program directly. So, there is no middle man that goes between the doctor and you. This is good news because doctor’s hate insurance and insurance causes unnecessary expenses and red tape that actually cause your medical expenses to go up. You know this is true. If you ask for the insurance price and the self pay price you will get two dramatically different costs with the same doctor. While insurance in its origin was intended to provide checks and balances to the doctor, it is essentially a roadblock to receiving medical care at a reasonable price. Self-pay removes that barrier.
The problem that many people have with this self pay method and with Samaritan’s in particular is that you have to ask the doctor for a super bill, which often takes time to get. Then, you have to submit all of your bills rather than the doctor’s office doing it for you. Some nurses aren’t used to providing a super bill, but they can and they will if you keep asking. Secondly, Samaritan’s can take time to pay you back. So, you pay up front for the bill and Samaritan’s pays you back, eventually, sometimes taking 6 months. For many, this is a reason to not use Samaritan’s. But if you have an emergency fund, there should be no issues with this approach. It is unfortunate, but people who do not have savings, mostly due to being irresponsible with money or debt dependent, will have problems with Samaritan’s.
Samaritan’s vs Medishare
There are a few differences between Samaritan’s and Medishare. We’ve used both. You submit all your own paperwork with Samaritan’s. For complicated medical situations like miscarriage and pregnancy procedures, we found that it was more simple with Samaritan’s than with Medicare. Medicare’s customer service would tell us one thing and then someone else would say something else. Getting clear answers on what was and was not covered was more difficult. With Samaritan’s it was much more simple and straightforward.
Samaritan’s Cares about Life
What really has made our experience with Samaritan’s far exceeded our expectations is that they really care about life. If you are needing support with pregnancy challenges like miscarriage, they will take care of you. It’s hard to anticipate having miscarriages, but I would just say miscarriage and pregnancy procedures due to miscarriage are very costly. We have had many, to which we have found solutions due to having Samaritan’s who has made the costs shareable. For that, we are truly grateful. We have not found any other health insurance program that would help in any way with any of these costs.
The Problem with Traditional Insurance and why Samaritan’s is a No-Brainer
As someone who has had many different jobs, we have had and tried a lot of different health insurance programs. With traditional health insurance you pay monthly rates that essentially cover you from catastrophic events but you often pay for half of standard appointments. With the monthly insurance costs you end up paying at least $12,000 a year in monthly fees in addition to your doctor’s visits.
With Samaritan’s it is the opposite – you pay reduced monthly rates but you pay for appointments in full (with a reduced self pay price). With Samaritan’s, they don’t have a legal obligation, meaning they cannot guarantee payment of catastrophic events. The thing is, it is often covered in full. Why can’t they guarantee it? Because the program is a sharing program and depends on how many monthly contributors to the program there are and how many of those are also processing requests. But the part that most should really consider is, how often does a normal person have a catastrophic event? Someone that keeps up their healthy eating, exercise habit, doesn’t have catastrophic events very often, if ever. So why pay $12,000 a year for traditional insurance anyway? If you are a believer in Jesus, a saver and have good personal money habits, and are ok with a little more work and responsibility to file your own forms for reimbursement, Samaritan’s is a no brainer.