Dive Brief:
- State regulators are raising concerns that member-based Christian "healthcare sharing ministries" give consumers the impression that they have health coverage when in reality, they avoid regulations that apply to conventional insurers under the Affordable Care Act, like minimum standards of coverage and minimum cash reserve requirements.
- Membership has been growing in the ministries, which have been around for 30 years, in part because the ACA has granted ministries an exemption as one of the only ways to avoid the law's mandate to buy insurance without paying fines.
- Some are wondering whether the ministry model, which yields high levels of patient satisfaction, is something that can "scale up."
Dive Insight:
With membership in ministries costing as little as $45 per month, it's no wonder the industry is seeing growth.
As The New York Times pointed out, ministries' appeal is not just in their low fees, but also in their ideological boundaries. While care for everyone isn't guaranteed, ministries give members who can't afford care hope in their most dire situations.
But while it may be "in the DNA of Americans to assist and help one another" and success comes "when the marketplace is given the opportunity to produce solutions on its own," as Dale Bellis, Liberty HealthShare's executive director, told the Times, the rising cost of healthcare is enough to shut out the Good Samaritan in those who are paying the price. Also, while the health plans under the insurance mandate aren't always affordable for middle-class Americans, there are no moral exclusions or other community rules that insurance participants must abide by. Christian Healthcare Ministries, for example, does not pay out for procedures that members have voted to exclude, such as prenatal care for pregnancies out of wedlock.
