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NYT on Christian Health Care Cost-Sharing Ministries


AnnaSofia

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I've been taking good old biotin because my nails were splitting. It's helping a lot. My skin too.

It's not especially expensive either.

I find that taking one specific supplement or vitamin instead of a blend is almost always a better option.

It's like treating symptoms when you have a cold. If you are congested, get a decongestant. If you are sneezy, antihistamine, etc. Don't stack your products.

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On 5/11/2020 at 11:22 PM, hoipolloi said:

Given their disclaimer -- "The laboratory services are for informational purposes only. It is not the intention of National Diagnostics, Inc and Life Extension to provide specific medical advice but rather to provide users with information to better understand their health."  -- it's difficult to see what medical value their lab services have.

So “National Diagnostics” does NOT have the intention of diagnosing anything?

And apparently providing clients with “information to better understanding their health” is not “medical advice”?

Um...

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9 hours ago, Petronella said:

So “National Diagnostics” does NOT have the intention of diagnosing anything?

No, they only have the intention of separating you from your money, kind of like Plexus.

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  • 1 year later...

For anyone who's interested, the Opening Arguments podcast most recent episode (OA497 Christian Health Sharing is a Scam) is what it says on the box. The CHS part lasts for about 20 minutes.

It's a law-focussed podcast, and I found it eye-opening.

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  • 3 weeks later...

John Oliver dedicated the June 27 episode of his show, Last Week Tonight, to these Health Care Sharing Ministries, or HCSMs:

 

To save you the typing, here's the site for JohnnyCare (which is, yes, completely legal): https://freedomfromhealthcare.org/

 

If you can't see this video: John explains just how awful and predatory these groups are. Lots of examples, including a woman who was attacked and knocked unconscious, and left with a cracked skull, broken neck, and intracranial bleeding. The HCSM denied her claim for reimbursement of the resulting bills. The reason for the denial? She was outside of a bar at the time, which violated their morality clause. They called the injuries "self-inflicted."

The information is not new to anyone reading this thread, but it will be to many of his viewers. The show started its own HCSM, JohnnyCare (link above). Which, despite covering absolutely nothing except a mini first aid kid (i.e., three band aids), is probably still better than some of the major ones because at least they provide that much and are honest about covering nothing else.

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  • 1 year later...
2 hours ago, gustava said:

Liberty Health Share rakes in millions while christians who trusted it die.

https://www.propublica.org/article/liberty-healthshare-healthcare-sharing-ministries-obamacare

 

My first reaction was rage over what these criminals get away with. My second reaction was, "OK, Pro Publica, now do Scamaritan."

I fail to understand why these scams are legal.

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1 hour ago, hoipolloi said:

My first reaction was rage over what these criminals get away with. My second reaction was, "OK, Pro Publica, now do Scamaritan."

I fail to understand why these scams are legal.

I suspect many Americans just aren't aware. I worked in the private sector and now I'm in government and these "Christian" health insurance scams plans were never listed as health insurance plan options. If it weren't for the many fundy families shilling for such companies, I wouldn't have known these insurance scams plans existed.

I follow Pro Publica on twitter and based on the replies, there are lots of people familiar with the nightmare that is the US health insurance industry who weren't aware of this particular method of theft. As more people become aware, the chances increase that someone in regulatory fields (where this type of scam could be stopped) will start to care. I think it's going to be tricky though; the industry is ready to respond with "We are being persecuted because we're Christian!" and the other side is going to have to work hard to keep the focus on Americans being robbed (versus Christians being attacked for Christianity). 

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2 hours ago, shesinsane said:

the nightmare that is the US health insurance industry

Well, this is the crux of everything. The health care sharing "ministries" are really just on the continuum of evil that is US healthcare as run by insurance companies. I am quite certain that our BCBS affiliate would do pretty bad stuff if they weren't bound by so many state & federal laws. As it is, they can get away with denying care or medications legally, knowing that itʻs difficult for people to fight them or, worse, that the affected parties will just die eventually. 

Nonetheless, I canʻt fathom how fraudulent operationis like Liberty, Scamaritan or Medishare (I hear their ads on a local Clear radio station) havenʻt at least been regulated more closely. They are such obvious scams. 

 

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  • 4 months later...

PBS has caught on to what we've known for ages.  Healthcare sharing scams:

 

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  • 4 months later...

Looks like healthcare sharing scams are profitable until the DOJ catches up with you:

Quote

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The founder of a so-called Christian health care sharing ministry in St. Joseph, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to leading an $8 million wire fraud conspiracy that cheated hundreds of members, and to making false statements on a personal tax return.

Craig Anthony Reynolds, 61, of St. Joseph, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to a federal information that charges him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of making false statements on a tax return.

Reynolds incorporated and ran Medical Cost Sharing, a tax-exempt organization, as its president and chief executive officer from 2014 through December 2022.

By pleading guilty today, Reynolds admitted that he and his co-conspirators used false and fraudulent promises to market Medical Cost Sharing as a “Health Care Sharing Ministry” to defraud hundreds of “ministry members.” Reynolds and his co-conspirators collected more than $8 million in member “contributions,” yet paid only 3.1 percent in health care claims so that they could personally profit and take most of the members’ contributions for themselves.

 

ETA: The FBI set up this webpage for the victims.

 

Edited by hoipolloi
Added info
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I had to share all this with a friend. Her husband, who is very religious, was thinking about going on one. He is in his late 50s and has heart issues among many things. 

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17 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

I had to share all this with a friend. Her husband, who is very religious, was thinking about going on one. He is in his late 50s and has heart issues among many things. 

I hope they avoid them like the plague. Having read over the Scamaritan requirements, it seems to me that unless you are a healthy adult between, say, 20 & 30, with no preconditions, you will not be covered for most things in these "ministries." 

Yes, regular medical insurance sucks big time and is run by a bunch of criminals but these healthcare-sharing outfits are even worse with far less accountability. I still cannot believe that they are legal alternatives under the ACA.

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So I was watching a Christmas movie on Great American Whatever network today ( I know I know) and CHCM ( Christian healthcare ministries) was being advertised, hot and heavy.

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40 minutes ago, clueliss said:

So I was watching a Christmas movie on Great American Whatever network today ( I know I know) and CHCM ( Christian healthcare ministries) was being advertised, hot and heavy.

I noticed one of those commercials during a sports event (basketball or football, can’t remember).  I wondered at the time (a week ago or so) how they afforded the commercial, because I’ve never seen one on any channel, much less during a prime time event.  Next time I’ll try to pay more attention. 

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A local radio station that I listen to while driving has a regular advertiser that is a Christian health care share company. The ad is slick - you wouldn’t know what’s going until they give out the phone number which is 1-800-my bible or something like that.

 

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6 minutes ago, GreenBeans said:

Jessa (Duggar) Seewald has been advertising one of these heavily in her stories recently. It’s awful.

Jessa's first posts about CHM involved Spurgeon being airlifted. I imagine your regular person wouldn't have this cost covered. But being Jessa, advertising for them, it was magically paid for. 

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The ad I saw was very you have complete choice of the providers you want to use.  And my mental response having seen some bloggers discuss healthcare share type insurance is that oh yeah because basically you’re paying the provider and then the healthcare share provider pays you. So of course you have complete choice. As long as you pay upfront.

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10 hours ago, marmalade said:

Jessa's first posts about CHM involved Spurgeon being airlifted. I imagine your regular person wouldn't have this cost covered.

That's correct. The family would just be told to "negotiate" the high cost bill down to a lower amount.

N.B. Ambulance service, ground or air, is very expensive and even standard medical insurance often does not cover it. Again, health care in the US is a criminal enterprise.

 

 

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