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Samaritan Ministries
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Mitsy- very true… even though he came from a medical insurance background he did say he thought it looks like a great program when he signed the initial form… I just hate pestering anyone… but I need to get over it! hahahaha
This is so interesting to read about! I have been curious how things like that work, but never researched them much. I know we are currently thinking through ways that we could get DH home and one of the hesitations is medical since we have some underlying things going on and in no way could afford to pay it all out of pocket. It’s good to know that there is an option if we were to find something that would make it so he could leave his day job and stay home more with us!
3 months later and I have our application filled out, check ready to go! Eek! It’s such a weird feeling to go back and forth from total peace with the decision to the “What If?” thoughts that pop up occasionally. I did check into preexisting stuff and it looks like a lot of it has timed out which is good. We’re trying not to focus soley on the potential for it to save us money because we feel like it is so much more than that. Our entired philosophy and family mission has changed SO much over the past 4-6 months that I really think this is just a part of God’s Glorious Unfolding for us (a sermon/lecture at our Bible study last week – hit so close to home!). We are excited at the idea of sending our money directly to a person that we will also be praying for. We want to make sure it is a family process because we think it will be a good teaching time for the kids as well. We’re just not telling our families… they would freak out, to say the least. I just hope it comes up in conversation after some major medical thing (not that I am hoping for one or anything) and when they start worrying about our insurance covering it we can say with confidence “We’re fine… we don’t have it anymore, and haven’t for _______ months/years.”
Just an FYI, the person who signs your paper work does not have to be your pastor. Our person is actually someone who is in our life group and serves as our accountability partner. We go to a rather large church, so it seemed unfitting for our pastor to do it. He knows us because of our involvement and my husband serves as a worship leader, but it still seemed odd for him to do it. I also don’t think he could possibly do it for everyone.
You could have a small group leader or someone else do it. Just call SMI and ask them about the person you’re thinking about. They’ll tell you if that person meets the criteria.Also, an exciting note. For the last 2 months, shares have been greater than needs so everyone has had a reduction. This month it was a 5% reduction. You would never see that happen with an insurance company.
Dztamra- I ditto the last sentence of yours. I was in tears when I saw last months share option we so needed that extra discount and then I was able to give to the extra option on my sheet and usually that can’t happen with our finances. I felt so blessed. Really would insurance ever give a discount? HA HA never! God is good!
It is so crazy that as much positives I am hearing/reading about it that it’s not more widely known about! I keep researching and reading reviews and haven’t found anything at all that causes us to reconsider. I’m still having those random freak out moments when my thoughts start to wander, and of course the stigma of being “uninsured” but it’s all worldly stuff anyway. It’s amazing the mental battle that’s going on, even though we feel it’s totally a gift from God that we’ve discovered it and that the pieces are falling into place. I feel guilty about those silly doubts that keep popping up in my head! I just rearranged our budget (YNAB – wonderful program) to include SM and an extra savings type acct. to build up for those routine appts (we have dentist appts. scheduled in December that are normally covered 100% with our insurance but will now be $700-$800 OOP). I was tempted to somewhat “cheat” the system and scramble to work a bunch of appts in while we still have traditional insurance but then I had the realization that I just need to have faith that it will all work out.
Side note… anyone have “Be Your Own Doctor” by Rachel Weaver? I stumbled across it while reading reviews (and I think it was actually somewhere on the SM website). It sounded good and the reviews were wonderful so I went ahead and ordered a copy. This is going to be a total lifestyle change for us as I make an even greater effort to keep everyone healthy, especially as we get into sick season. I feel like this is going to be such a wonderful heart and mental shift for us as a family… it’s weird how excited I am
.Timely! I was just researching these yesterday! Robin, there are 3 similar ministries that I found:
1. Medishare
2. Samaritan
3. Christian Healthcare Ministry
Here is a brief summary of benefits, etc. This is all for a family of more than 5, which probably fits most of us.
Medishare –
New Member fee: $120
Monthly cost: $213 with $10,000 ‘deductable’for entire household, $282 with $7500 deductable, $366 with $5,000 deductable
No maximum to amount of payments you can receive
20% off for good health, $5000 death provision
Bills go directly to Medishare from your doctor
Samaritan –
$200 New member fee
Monthly Share: $405 – $300 deductable per illness/incident
Maximum $250,000 payout per need
Bills come to you, members shares come direct to you
No death provisions
Short term disability coverage offered
Christian Healthcare Ministry:
Monthly Share: $135 with $5,000 deductable, $255 with $1,000 deductable (They also have a ‘gold’ option but that was out of our price range so I didn’t research that)
Maximum $125,000 payout per illness/incident – for an extra $150 per year you can extend your coverage to $225,000
Bills come to you and they expect you to negotiate them down before you submit them.
The “Unit” system isn’t really complicated – It is 1 unit per adult and 1 unit for all of your children. So three units total for a family.
This is probably the one we will choose, simply because the amount we will save in monthly shares will enable us to set up a health savings account to cover our deductable. Admittedly, their process seems a bit more complicated than Samaritans, but we will save over $3000 a year by using them so I think that is worth a little complication :-).
Hope that helps some!
For Samaritan we are doing the Save to Share option which means setting aside a certain amount (right around $400 I think) for the year to be used as needed for others (comes in the newsletter) and with that option there is no longer a $250K max. Whatever isn’t used it rolled over to the next year until you reach a 3 year total max. I was reading some reviews and one lady said they have sent a max of $20 out of it at one time, most are usually just cents to a couple of dollars. I made a separate line item in my budget for it so it will be out of sight, out of mind until it’s needed.
Renee – I don’t completely understand the Save to Share option. I know you have to sign up for it. Then, do we just set aside $400 per year? Or is it a certain amount per month that we set aside?
And then do we keep that pot growing for 3 years? or until a certain amount is reached?
And, I do own and use the “Be Your Own Dr.” book. We really like it. Because of it, my collection (and use!) or herbs has grown. We stock charcoal for diarrhea and for poultices; we use her “flu tea” for when we’re feeling like we’re getting sick. I love that the herbs mentioned in the book are mostly readily available…..and nothing in the book is super-weird.
I’ve also started making my own tinctures (herbs + vodka + 6 weeks = “cough” medicine). We use them as soon as we feel like we’re getting something. I really think they help to lessen the severity of colds and shorten the duration of colds and flu.
We do still get sick – and since there are 6 of us in the house, it does travel through us all, but it seems like we’re more resistant. It seems like one child will get sick, and then a day or so later another child…..and then several days later, another child. It actually seems to take about 2 weeks for us all to get sick instead of us all being sick at once. I’m not sure if I like that or not! *L*
Karen, I could be totally wrong on the Save to Share since we haven’t seen it in action yet, but from what I have read, reread, and read again (ha!) you set aside the $400 for the year. As extra needs arise for other people they might ask you to dip into that $400 throughout the year a little at a time, but never more than that amount total. The next year whatever is left rolls over and you add another $400 (I think it’s technially $399 or something like that), and so on. It’s not continuous though. They have a 3 year max amount, so in our case I assume around a $1200 max (you won’t have to keep doing it even if it’s not used, eventually having a huge sum of money). So, if in 3 years they haven’t asked us to dip into it then we can just let it ride for the 4th year. This takes care of the $250K max for each year… I kind of see it as “insurance” with your “assurance” (a word they used in the booklet or somewhere I was reading… they are not “insurance” they are “assurance”). If they do request the funds and you don’t have the means to pay it (so essentially you didn’t put it aside as you promised you would) then you lose the priviledge of that program… either for a certain amount of time or permanently, I can’t remember.
If the max is $250k per illness, what about cancer or other ongoing treatment illness?
My daughter had emergency health stuff and it was well over the max by the time it was done.My friends son went through a year of chemo, surgeries… they hit $250k on just a few days.
Just thinking about bigger things, how does ot work, not just broken arms, or getting appendix out.
That is why we are opting for the Save to Share so then there isn’t a max. amount. Also, another thing to consider is that the price billed for insurance is often much higher than self pay. There was one instance I was reading about (their highest Need ever at the time, maybe still the case) – the total bill was $1.5M dollars, but after talking with the hospital they lowered the bill to $700K which was fully taken care of by Samaritan.
My wife and I have been members of Samaritan about two years now. We had one need, our first baby in May, and had a wonderful experience. Receiving reimbursement from other families, you really feel like a part of the Christian Church. The notes folks send are a great blessing as well. I would highly recommend Samaritan.
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