Christian co-ops swap burden of medical bills-exempt from fines in health law

[RamboLiberal]

The Suitters are among more than 100,000 people in the United States whose care is compensated not through guaranteed insurance payments, but through faith that fellow believers will foot the bills. Christians who regularly attend a Bible-based church usually sign up as individuals, but they’re part of a larger community that pays for ailments from broken legs to brain tumors, so long as they meet ministry guidelines.

The arrangements have drawn new attention following President Barack Obama’s signing last month of the health care reform law, which specifically exempts members of health care sharing ministries from so-called “pay or play” taxes on mandatory health insurance.

That means the Suitters can all but ignore the new law, which takes effect in 2014 and requires that most people buy health insurance or face a fine that starts at $95 for individuals and $285 for families, or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater, and rises to $695 for individuals and $2085 for families or 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

Officials with the Suitters’ Christian co-op, Samaritan Ministries International, and other health care sharing groups say they lobbied federal legislators aggressively for the exemption, claiming that their members cover their own medical needs, providing their own kind of care.

“Our argument was, we’re not part of the problem, we’re continuing to be part of the solution,” said James Lansberry, vice president of Samaritan, which serves some 14,000 families. “Our members are here, they’re paying their bills.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36473470/ns/health-health_care/

Fine. But I hope they are not out there lobbying against the rest of us getting affordable health care. But I bet many of them are tea-partiers and/or vote for Repukes promising to repeal the bill.

Wonder if this is how the Duggar family covers their brood including the premature baby they had that had to cost a probably cost hundreds of thousands in medical bills.

[Xithras]

1. One important thing to be aware of with these coops.

They rarely, if ever, cover the cost of "routine" medical services. Much of my wifes family belongs to one of these coops, and they tried to convince us to join a number of years ago. We looked into it a little, and found out that most only cover "major" medical issues. Regular medical services including checkups, mammograms, prescriptions, and blood tests are paid 100% out of your own pocket.

If that's not enough to deter people, there are also stories on the Internet of people getting burned by these. People having major surgeries, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and then only getting a portion of it paid back. I read one story about a guy who had paid in over $500 a month for more than a decade before needing a heart surgery. He ended up with over $100,000 in bills, and the coop members sent him about $5,000 afterward.

There's lots of negative information about these out there, but we also found that we wouldn't have qualified anyway...we don't go to church.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. One law for religious nutjobs and another law for the rest of us.

Doesn't seem quite right. Then again, the "penalty" is designed to be unenforceable, so they really secured an exemption from nothing. I hope they spent lots of co-op money to lobby for it.

[enlightenment]

3. What the heck does this mean?

" . . . but they’re part of a larger community that pays for ailments from broken legs to brain tumors, so long as they meet ministry guidelines. "

Are those guidelines for belonging to the organization - attendance, etc - or guidelines for the ailments? Broken legs and brain tumors are acceptable but herpes isn't . . . or something like that?