Experiences or Thoughts on Christian Healthcare Ministries Please :)

[CLockett]

At 56 I am not eligible for Medicare nor is my Canadian husband and question paying the high premium for coverage with a $7500 deductible per person as a full time RVr.

 

While reading the post commenting on BCBS no longer offering coverage to the Texan domiciled RVrs and that Florida appears next (we are South Dakota domiciled and already went through this fiasco) that one poster commented on Christian Healthcare Ministries (CMH) as an ACA approved option.

 

I appreciate CHM's coverage appears to be for "catastrophic" needs compared to those needing long term healthcare for a myriad of health conditions and am willing to take the risk that we continue with good health.

 

As such, do any of you have CMH experiences/testimonials that may be shared?

 

Thanking you All in advance

 

Corinne

[Ronbo]

My wife had had it for 2 yrs. they will answere all your questions. She has not had to use it yet. Thankfully she is very healthy. I will go on Medicare in December due to disability. I plan to use them with medicare

[TreyandSusan]

We have participated for more than 15 years. We have never had to submit a bill for sharing. We pay our own annual Doctors visits and medications as well as any visits for minor issues like poison ivy, cold, etc(only had to do this a few times). We know others who have submitted bills and they have had no real problem other than having to deal with the same medical industry issues anyone would with insurance. We have met the current CEO/President and a few others who work in the office and they seem to be honorable people.

We highly recommend this organization for someone with conditions as stated by the OP above.

[whj469]

I would have to be sure that I was going to be healthy, at about $90 for a visit to a GP or about $250 or more for a specialist, I wouldn't want to

pay out of pocket. I find it to risky to go without health insurance. My pacemaker was over $69,000 including the hospital stay.

I have been buying health insurance for almost 335 employees for over 20 years and I have learned a thing of two about the issue over those years.

I am very sure that you will get what you pay for. There is no wonderful health plan that is a lot cheaper then others. If you compare apples to apples

you will not see much difference in the cost. Years ago when they wanted your business you could get the company that wanted you for say 10% less but after the first year or two they

will increase the cost. You can't even find one that will do that today. I am very sure that if a plan is $750 per month you can't get that same plan somewhere else for $400. They wouldn't be able to

pay the claims, the reinsurance for the big claims, administration of the plan and their profit. Good Luck

[trostberg]

I have looked at this but have not ventured into it yet. I work in healthcare management and have to negotiate with insurance companies and many of them lately flat refuse to negotiate rates. You have to be in their network and in these types of plans my understanding is that you are treated as a private pay patient paying full price. And if I should have a major emergency I would not be feeling up to it to fight with the insurance company.

 

I believe someone said that one of these companies does advocate and negotiate for you. I am curious if they are having luck negotiating in the last year. I would be better than no insurance and is an allowable alternative for purposes of the ACA and any penalties.

[GlennWest]

We have Liberty Health Share. DW has bp due to her weight. They made her a provisional member until weight is down and supplied a coach to help her. This cost us an additional $80 a month. We only pay $380 monthly for us both.We get 1 wellness visit a year. They is no nonshare for wellness. They pay 100% after nonshare amount, think deductible, of 1k for us both. Pay is 150% of medicare

[jc2]

Very well said whj.

[CLockett]

Thank you to All who replied, I appreciate your input.

 

I worked as a Property & Casualty Insurance manager (auto accident injury related claims) for over 25 years of my 37 employment years and am aware this is a controversial choice, especially for me.

 

Then again selling our So Cal home and living in a 38' 5th wheel was thought quite controversial to many too

 

Here's to All of us beating the odds and enjoying good health.

[Jack Mayer]

It is hard to make a choice among the options that is particularly beneficial to an individual that is a traveler. The shared cost organizations are becoming far more attractive - especially since in my case I only wish to cover for catastrophic events. While some of the shared cost organizations have some limitations, so does my regular policy (PPO, BCBS TX). All of this is going to continue to change every year and it is not going to change to the betterment of us all. Fortunately for me I only have a 6 month gap from the beginning of 2016 until my Medicare starts. So far that is looking pretty good - Danielle gets EVERYTHING covered with her Medicare policies with her supplemental. And she pays far, far less than I do and I have essentially ZERO coverage unless it is catastrophic.

[rocksbride]

Hi Corrine,

 

We have been members of Christian Healthcare Ministries for several years and it's an amazing organization. It is not insurance and they make that very clear. It's bill sharing.

 

We are "self-pay," and are ultimately responsible for our medical bills. However, CHM Gold members will pay the first $500 per incident. After that, bill sharing kicks in.

 

There is an additional service CHM offers which you should look into called "Brother's Keeper," which goes above and beyond the regular things CHM covers. Many quarters we don't have to pay anything for our membership in Brother's Keeper because so many new members are coming in that everyone's medical bills are completely paid, and BK members don't need to help in that arena. When we have paid, I don't think it's been $50 for the quarter.

 

I highly recommend the organization. There is a lot of helpful information on their extensive website, including the process for emergencies and non-emergencies, pre-existing conditions, etc. http://www.chministries.org/

 

We have submitted bills to CHM and happily found out that all the discounts we negotiated upfront were first applied to our $500 responsibility instead of pro-rated to our portion by percentage. We didn't have to pay a dime that we weren't reimbursed for later. CHM did everything they said they would, and we received the funds to pay our bills in the time frame expected.

 

Here are a few things I really like:

 

CHM members are also exempt from O-Care in 2015.

Diabetes is not a disqualifier for membership.

Your membership is active the day you sign up; there is no 90-day waiting period. (See their generous definitions of pre-existing conditions and the limits of coverage. It's on the website)

If we need emergency treatment while we're traveling in Mexico, we can submit bills for sharing if they are itemized and in English.

You can go to any doctor you like for the things that are covered.

It's affordable.

The staff is easy to work with, and actually helpful.

 

It's important to be clear on what can be shared and what won't.

 

One challenge for us is that maintenance meds aren't covered. However, if the meds are related to a covered incident, then they'll be covered.

We just found out we couldn't submit for a custom knee brace, but they'd share the bill for a knee replacement. (What?) However, I was given the email address of the CEO and told I could submit a request directly to him to explain the need. What insurance company gives you access to their CEO?

 

If you want to know more about our experience, p.m. me or HERO Maker.

[rocksbride]

As for negotiating with HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS (not insurance companies), it gets easier as we've been through the process now a couple of times. Self-pay does not mean full-price; you ask for consideration that they would give to insurance companies. Someone in the system will know what the rate is or can work one out for you, but often 30-35% is easy to get. CHM says 40% is not unreasonable to expect. One time before CHM, the hospital wrote off almost 60% of my bill for a one-time cash payment instead of $20/month for years.

 

As for the negotiation, that's upfront only for non-emergencies. If you have an emergency, get treatment and then things get worked out later.

 

If you want some detail about our experience, p.m. me.

 

With CHM, it doesn't matter where we live, or where we travel around the country. It's in place and we can access help if we need it. While CHM may not be for everyone, it is a proven God-send for us and the rate-negotiating part of it should not be the show-stopper to keep someone from carefully considering CHM as a legitimate, affordable solution.

 

Good luck in working out the healthcare issues. It's daunting for sure.

[Kirk W]

Fortunately for me I only have a 6 month gap from the beginning of 2016 until my Medicare starts. So far that is looking pretty good - Danielle gets EVERYTHING covered with her Medicare policies with her supplemental. And she pays far, far less than I do and I have essentially ZERO coverage unless it is catastrophic.

It is generally difficult to find more reasonably priced health care than what Medicare offers, once you pass that age. One reason is that we all paid part of the premiums for those covered before we reached the age of participation. Supplements are quite another topic since those are still in the private insurance marketplace. We have excellent supplemental coverage for doctor & medical facilities thanks to a very good plan F which is fairly expensive but is subsidized by 3M now that the ACA penalties caused them to discontinue the Medicare supplemental program of their retiree health care plan. That cost for the two of us now exceeds $400/month and it increases each year based partly upon our increasing age. (I've not figured out how to solve that part of the problem ) The weakest part of our coverage is the drug coverage, Medicare part D.