2 of 4

One key difference among cost-sharing plans is how, and to whom, they make payments. Samaritan Ministries of Washington, Illinois, uses one option.The 16,000-member group told CT it is a "pure sharing" operation: Members receive its Christian Healthcare Newsletter and agree to make a monthly payment. A member with a medical bill mails it to Samaritan's office, which publishes it in the newsletter and assigns that bill to several members who pay the monthly share check directly to the member in need.Members in Medi-Share send their monthly checks to the office in Florida. Medical bills go to its processing office in Sterling, Illinois. Before paying bills, specialists negotiate with doctors and hospitals to lower their fees.Christian Brotherhood uses a hybrid approach. It also publishes needs in a newsletter. But some members send their monthly shares to cooperating local churches. These churches then send the money on to other Brotherhood members whose bills have been assigned to them. The monthly payments otherwise go directly to Christian Brotherhood.Accountability seems to be a major focus in Medi-Share's program. It paid over $8 million in members' needs in 1998, while supporting a staff of 60. Medi-Share produces regular audits and financial reports for its board, and made them available at CT's request. Its board is also relatively large and includes a number of members identified as having insurance and financial backgrounds. Other sharing plans, in contrast, do not produce regular financial reports.

Some sharing plans have experienced difficult times—especially when incoming member bills exceed member gifts.The Brotherhood recently sent out a direct-mail appeal to "Christian people all over this nation," asking for a "sacrificial gift of love to help close the gap between" the $4.5 million in needs presented to the ministry every month and the $3 million in shares available to pay them.This financial gap "represents a serious amount of stress on dozens of hurting families," wrote Tom Hawthorn, the founder's son. (Brotherhood's offices did not return CT's calls seeking financial statements and audits.)Some plans, like Samaritan, meet such deficits head on by prorating their payments."People may not receive 100 percent of their needs, but why should they?" Sharman says. "This is not insurance, it's the body of Christ doing what we're told to do. Still, it is very workable."He adds that in Samaritan's six years of operation, there was only one three-month period when bills had to be prorated, at 90 percent. In several other months claims were lower than expected, and members were told to decrease their share payments accordingly.To limit shortfalls, Medi-Share and Beracah have contracted with an established insurance carrier for backup or "stop-loss" insurance to pay claims that cost more than a certain preset limit: from $25,000 to $1 million for Beracah, and from $50,000 to $5 million for Medi-Share.Medi-Share's stop-loss policy is owned by a trust established in the Bahamas. Executive Director E. John Reinhold told CT that the unusual offshore trust arrangement was set up to get around "laws in 11 to 14 states which prevent a major medical organization from discriminating against homosexuals. Some also prohibit the exclusion of certain pre-existing conditions, such as severe obesity." Medi-Share's literature says that nobody connected with the program earns any commissions or other payments from this stop-loss insurance.This offshore trust arrangement did not pass muster in Wisconsin, however. In 1999 the Wisconsin Department of Insurance forced Medi-Share to set up an alternative stop-loss plan, based in the United States, for its members in Wisconsin. Sharing plans that offer stop-loss insurance for members reveal just how closely these programs emulate traditional health insurance.For Sharman, the faith element in sharing plans puts the programs into a category of their own. "What we're attempting to show in the 21st century is that the body of Christ can work just as well as it did in the first century. It's a testimony to the world and to the church. Paying medical bills is just a means."Historians of the early Christian church say that Christian care for the sick and dying broadened the appeal of Christianity, perhaps becoming a factor in its rapid growth.

next page... |  2 of 4

share this page

October 2 2000, Vol. 44, No. 11