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What is the biggest expense in your monthly budget?
Until recently, I would have answered health insurance. We had it good for a while… I was working at a church, we had excellent coverage for just a few hundred dollars a month. Our health insurance was one of the reasons that I fought God on leaving my job and being a stay at home mom. I knew that coverage through Josh's employer was much more expensive.
When I finally left my job in May of 2010, we had to move our coverage to Josh's employer. The plan was terrible and the premiums as well as the deductible were high. That fall, Josh got a new job. We were then paying a little less in monthly premiums, but we were now on a true high deductible plan that required a lot of out of pocket money to be paid before the insurance covered much of anything. On top of that, the premiums kept rising each year. Thankfully, the owner of the company was doing his best to help cover these increases… until Fall 2013.
When the email arrived with the information regarding the renewal of our health insurance and the increase, I cried. Allow me to paint the ugly picture for you…
We had been paying $919.17 per month. That was already more than our mortgage and the monthly premium was about to increase to $1031.53 per month. Our deductible for this wonderful plan? $4,000. Sickening only begins to describe the situation. How can a one-income family with 3 kids budget this? There had to be another way. There had to be something better than paying over $12,000 a year for next to no benefits.
I did research on the major healthcare sharing ministries that are out there. I wasn't completely happy with any of them. Most don't cover pre-existing conditions. One requires you to send your monthly “premiums” directly to another member in need. None of them were a good fit for our family.
Enter Christian Healthcare Ministries
Christian Healthcare Ministries seemed too good to be true at first and Josh was apprehensive at first. We dug deeper, talked to a few people who have CHM, and we felt CHM was a good fit for us.
- CHM offers a generous pre-existing conditions policy.
- CHM receives funds from members and distributes funds directly to those with needs.
- CHM offers three levels of coverage. Currently: Gold at $150/mo, Silver at $85/mo, and Bronze at $45/mo
- CHM is capped at three units no matter how many people there are in your family.
- CHM offers an add-on coverage called Brother's Keeper to help with extremely large medical bills.
- CHM is protected under the affordable care act and qualifies as having insurance – no penalty to pay!
We felt most comfortable going with the Gold level at this time in our lives. We choose the Gold level for every member of the family, though you can mix and match. Women of child-bearing age should consider the Gold level, but I'll tell you more about that in another post.
So what does our coverage look like now?
With five people in our family, we pay for three Gold units. That's $150 x 3 = $450. Yes, $450/mo. We saved almost $600 per month and almost $7000 per year on our monthly health care premiums. We did opt to add on the Brother's Keeper coverage for another maximum of $25 per unit (or $75) per quarter – that's the maximum and so far it has been lower each quarter.
The downside of CHM is that they don't cover routine well-care or physicals. They also don't cover basic sick care. The benefits do not kick in until an “incident” incurs bills of $500 or more at the Gold level.
On the positive side, at the Gold level, we only pay at maximum of $500 out of pocket for an “incident.” A child breaks an arm? The ER or Urgent care, doctor follow up, and any other appointments related to that break are all part of the one “incident” for which we are only responsible for $500 out of pocket. Negotiated discounts apply to that $500 out of pocket. That means that if the bills are discounted by $500 or more total, and in many cases they can be, then we would owe nothing out of pocket. You read that right, $0. You could compare that to a deductible – at the Gold level, we only pay a maximum of $500 per unit out of pocket for the year. If that same child breaks his leg in the same year, we owe nothing more out of pocket for him that year. Then if another child needs his tonsils out that year, we pay a maximum of $500 out of pocket for that surgery and related appointments. Another member of the family has an incident? That's another max of $500.
The bottom line? After we reach three incidents for three different family members, we've reached our maximum for the year for our three units of coverage at the Gold level. That's a lot better than the $4,000 deductible we had to pay last year when we had Josiah!
Tips for budgeting with Christian Healthcare Ministries
Here are a few tips for budgeting and setting aside savings when using CHM:
- Put your maximum out-of-pocket per unit into savings too. For us this is $1500 for the year.
- Set aside money in savings for well-visits, physicals, and basic illness visits like for a cold or the flu.
- Consider an additional prescription discount plan if anyone in your family takes regular medication or look at generic options at Walmart or Target that run $10 per quarter.
If you and your family are relatively healthy and do not have major pre-existing conditions, Christian Healthcare Ministries might be a good fit for you too. Go over to the CHM website and read through the options, pre-existing condition limitations, and request an information packet.
If you decide that CHM is a good fit for you, would you do us a favor? Use our Bring-A-Friend link or put Josh and Amanda Pelser, #168249 as the referrer on your application. CHM gives us a free month on our membership after you've been with CHM for three months.
UPDATE: We've had a couple of “incidents” and can now share how a reimbursement works with CHM. Read more here!
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This looks great, Amanda. I’ve wondered about switching – how long did the approval process take? Right now our rates are sky high as well, but not as bad as yours. Our coverage is pretty good but we are healthy overall.
Felice, your start date is the date that you submit your application or the alternate date that you put on your application. I think we had our initial acceptance information within a few days by email and then paperwork and cards arrived within a couple weeks in the mail. They’ve seen a huge increase in members recently, so it could take a little bit longer for the everything right now. There really isn’t much of an approval process… if you submit your application and agree to the terms, you should be accepted.
We switched too and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Our insurance was a little bit more than yours. Even though we have had two trips to the ER and a broken foot this year, we are still nowhere close to spending what we spent for our insurance.
Thanks for sharing Rebecca! My only regret is that we didn’t research sharing ministries and switch earlier. Our costs really started rising around 2008. We could have saved so much money over the years and on the last two babies.
Felice, I highly recommend it.
If you don’t mind me asking, what are your well visits and basic illness visits costing you?
Great question. Our family is relatively healthy and we use natural remedies as much as possible. We’ve not had to go to the doctor since switching to CHM last fall and recently moved to a new area and don’t yet have a new doctor established. Every doctor is different, so the best thing to do is to call your doctors office and find out how much a standard well or sick visit would cost as a self-pay patient and what kind of discount they would give you for paying in cash.
Wow! I had no idea how much you spend in the US for having a baby! If you really want to save money, you should move to Canada. I’ve never paid to have a baby or for pre/post natal care. It’s all covered under the government’s medical services plan, and everyone is covered.
Ha, true! Canada is a lot cheaper, but nationalized healthcare can have it’s downsides too. Isn’t it interesting how things like this vary from country to country?
Thanks for this well-crafted and succinct article! My wife and I are looking at Medi-Share, Samaritan Ministries, and Christian Healthcare Ministries, and we’re leaning toward the latter. Your post was very informative. Thank you 🙂
You’re welcome. I have friends happy with Medi-Share and Samaritan too. All are good choices. Pre-existing conditions (my husband had diverticulitis with a hospitalization last summer) and sending premiums / receiving funds directly through the ministry were the two things that made CHM the best fit for our family.
We are switching to this at the year’s turnover! Our brother and sister-in-law use them and have been SO pleased. Bring on the savings! Thanks for all the information:)
Thanks for this! We have 2 good jobs at a private, Christian school, but our health care keeps rising and we feel as though we are paying just to not get penalized. I am a little nervous about the “stigma” of being a “self-pay,” but I may find doctors to be more cordial about it than I expect. I think we may sign up and I used you as a referral. Blessings!
CHM has been giving great tips in their monthly newsletters for how to speak to providers and how to ask for discounts. And CHM is a valid option under the ACA – no worries about that penalty. Thanks for using us as your referral!
Loved your article! I am just wondering if well baby visits and vaccines are covered under this plan? Thanks!
Joni, I answered that question in the post:
“The downside of CHM is that they don’t cover routine well-care or physicals. They also don’t cover basic sick care. The benefits do not kick in until an “incident” incurs bills of $500 or more at the Gold level.”
Hi, This is very helpful information! Thank you. Does CHM charge you more if you are overweight like Liberty Health Share does by automatically enrolling you in the Health Trac program and Medi Share does as well?
We’ve never been asked for our weight and there is not an additional program or cost if you’re “overweight” that I’m aware of.
Thank you Amanda for your blog. It was very helpful. A question about brother’s keeper. Does it have a cap? Do you know. We will be signing and using your name as sponsor.
Thanks again,
Fabiola Lough
Thank you! The Brother’s Keeper add on is designed to be a catastrophic addition to your regular membership. It’s for the unfortunate occasion that you experience major accidents, cancer, and such. At the gold level, there is no cap to what can be shared. There’s a chart on their website explaining the caps for the silver and bronze levels. Look under the how it works drop down in the menu bar.
Amanda,
I found your website and was so glad to see that you were a member of CHM. I am planning to apply and have been doing so much research my head is spinning! We have been on the Obama Care for the last year. In 2017 our premium increase is so high we are no longer able to pay it. My daughter heard about CHM and I like the idea of Christians helping Christians. My questions to you is, are you still a member and what has your experience been with the group? I have read so many pros and cons about all of them. Any help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated.
We are still CHM members and have had a great experience with them. See this post about our first “incident”.
I’m also ready to apply to a health sharing ministry and am trying to decide between Liberty and CHM. The drawback from CHM is that you do have to pay everything out of pocket for any incident that is under $500, correct? No matter how many times that happens? And from my dialogue with CHM via email there is NO amount you have to pay if the incident is above $500. I went round and round with them on this and they were adamant in saying if it’s over $500 there is no part that has to be self payed. Has this been your experience? I am nearly ready to sign on the line for Liberty but every time I’ve made a phone call to their offices, the workers on the other end sound so unhappy and crabby that it makes me nervous to think of working with people that seem to be a bit unfriendly. How has working with CHM been for you in terms of customer care? Thanks. I need to get my application in soon.
I’ve always had great customer service with CHM when I’ve needed to call. You do pay for anything under $500 out of pocket. At the Gold level, you may have several under $500 things that end up being related that then turn into an incident over $500 and would then be eligible for reimbursement. If your incident is over $500 on the Gold level, then you are responsible for the first $500 and will be reimbursed everything beyond that. But, if you obtain discounts from your providers, that is matched dollar per dollar in reductions from that $500. So, if you get $250 in discounts, you’re left with $250 out of pocket after reimbursements. Maybe the confusion is self-payed terminology. With CHM, you pay for everything or arrange a payment plan and are reimbursed by CHM in around 120 days. CHM will help you negotiate discounts if needed, but they will not pay your providers directly.