Samaritan Ministries (Classic)
or
Christian Health Ministries (Gold)
A health share ministry, also known as a health sharing ministry or a healthcare sharing ministry, is an alternative approach to health insurance. It is typically organized as a nonprofit religious organization and operates on the principles of shared responsibility and voluntary contributions from its members.
In a health share ministry, like-minded individuals or families come together to pool their financial resources to assist in covering each other's medical expenses. Members contribute a monthly fee or "share," similar to insurance premiums, which is then used to pay for eligible medical costs of the participants.
Each health share ministry sets its own guidelines and rules regarding eligible expenses, member contributions, and the process for sharing medical costs. Members typically submit their medical bills to the ministry, which then evaluates the requests and distributes funds accordingly.
Pricing $$$ (as of Aug 2024)
Samaritan - Classic
1 Person:
Age 18-29: $182/mo
Age 30-54: $303/mo
Age 55-65+: $681/mo
2 People:
Age 18-54: $591/mo
Age 55-65+: $681/mo
3-7 People:
Age 18-54: $665/mo
Age 55+: $681/mo
8+ People: $821/mo
CHM - Gold
1 Person: $240/mo
2 People: $480/mo
3+ People: $720/mo
Personal Responsibility
With both programs there is an IUA (initial unsharable amount) that you must pay before sharing begins.
Samaritan’s is per need. This means a need must reach at least $750 worth of bills before it is eligible to be shared. You pay the first $750 and all bills after that will be shared. Samaritan does provide you with a search engine of “healthcare bluebook providers” with fair prices. If you use one of these providers for at least one of the bills In your need then the IUA is waived.
CHM is per person, per year. Regardless, a need must reach at least $1,000 before it is eligible to be shared. The first $1,000+ need of the year you would pay the initial $1,000 and any bills after that would be shared. If that same person has another need that year resulting in $1,000+ bills then everything would be shared, including the first $1,000.
Samaritan - Classic
$750 per need
CHM - Gold
$1,000 annually
$1,500 per pregnancy
What it Looks Like in Practice
SAMARITAN
When my husband was having severe stomach pain. He saw chiropractors, GI doctors, bodyworkers, had lots of bloodwork done, infection tests, a CT scan, HIDA scan, and gallbladder removal. Since he chose to go to a location for the HIDA scan from Samaritan’s Healthcare Bluebook the $750 IUA was waived.
Total cost of everything: $25,664.16
Amount Shared: $25,664.16
IF he had not used a Bluebook provider $24,914.16 would have been shared ($25,664.16 - $750 IUA)
CHM
Let’s say you had to have your appendix removed and the total cost of surgery, hospital stay, and follow up appointments was $12,000. CHM would cover $11,000 ($12,000 - $1,000/yearly IUA).
If later that year you had an ear infection that totaled $450, CHM would not cover anything because it does not hit the $1,000 threshold. However, if you got broke your arm and bills for that need totaled $3,000 then CHM would cover everything because you hit the $1,000 threshold AND the $1,000 yearly IUA was already met with the appendix need.
Sharing Limits Per Need
Samaritan: $250,000
CHM: $125,000
Optional Additional Coverage
SM: $399/year (roughly 33/mo): Unlimited Coverage
CHM: $27/mo: Unlimited Coverage
Sharing Percentage
100% for both
Once the initial personal responsibility has been met
Sharing Timeline
SM: 90 Days always
CHM:Typically under 90 days, but could be longer
Pre-Existing Conditions
SM: Not sharable, unless 12 mo symptom/treatment free
CHM: Not sharable, unless 12 mo symptom/treatment free
(Cancer has some additional requirements)
Preventative/Maintenance Care
No sharable by either
Holistic & Alternative Medicine: SM covers; CHM does NOT
Chiropractic Care: SM covers; CHM does NOT
Supplements: Samaritan covers 190 days worth; CHM does NOT
Sending Shares
Samaritan: Each month you are assigned a specific person to send your share to either via PayPal or check in the mail. You will be given what the medical need the share is for so you can be praying for the member, and send them a note if you’d like.
CHM: You send your share directly to CHM headquarters where they will then divvy out the shares to the appropriate members with needs.
Receiving Shares
Samaritan: You will receive PayPal payments or checks (whichever you sign up for) directly from members.
CHM: Headquarters will mail you a check directly.
What if there are More Bills than Shares?
What this means is that members submitted more medical bills than shares one month.
For example, if there were $35,000,000 worth of medical bills submitted by members that month, but only $34,000,000 shares sent in, then the ministry would be in a $1M deficit. This is rare, but with inflation and the rising costs in the medical industry it happens.
So how does SM and CHM handle this?
Samaritan will prorate needs a small %. So instead of sharing 100% of bills that month they may only share 97%. Typically the percentage is very small, and they have a members assistance fund they will use to help members who are burdened by the proration. Per their guidelines, a member CANNOT be prorated more than $4,500 across an open need.
CHM will not prorate, but instead push bills to the next month (and possibly the next, and so on) until the money is available. The pro is that a need isn’t prorated, but a con is you could be waiting months and months and months to receive any money.
Maternity
Both have amazing maternity benefits and will share almost everything when it comes to prenatal care, labor/delivery, postpartum and newborn care.
There are a few things Samaritan will share that CHM will not:
Prenatal massage
Chiropractic care
$500 towards a doula
Prenatal vitamins
Other supplements recommended by OB/midwife
Samaritan does require a two person plan for maternity coverage. This can include mom and dad, or mom and a dependent. If only mom is going to be on the plan, she can pay the price of a two person plan in order to receive coverage.
CHM does NOT require a two person plan in order to share a maternity need.
My Personal Thoughts
We have had both CHM and SM. I had my firstborn under CHM, and my second under SM (as well as my husband’s gallbladder surgery, my son’s ear infection, and my daughter’s tongue tie release). Both have been absolutely AMAZING.
What I prefer about CHM is that they send you one big check directly from headquarters, and you don’t have to keep up with all the payments coming in from different members like with SM. However, if you get organized and make a little spreadsheet it’s manageable.
Ultimately, the reason we switched to SM is because for a family of 3-7 it’s cheaper, and they also cover holistic/alternative medicine, chiropractic care, supplements, and prenatal massages - which CHM doesn’t.
If you do decide to go with Samaritan, tell them Alex Kelly from Denton, TX referred you.
They give $100 referral bonuses ;)
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