Navigating Self-Employed Healthcare

For us, the first hurdle in stepping out from under the corporate umbrella was figuring out how we were going to cover our health insurance costs. Option 1 was to keep our current health insurance that had previously been provided by Robert's soon-to-be former employer for a mere $1400 plus a month through COBRA. While we accounted for this expense as we counted the costs of taking this step, it seemed like the best place to cut costs. With 5 young and active children, not having some sort of insurance, or insurance substitute, would be irresponsible and too great a financial risk exposure. So, enter the concept of healthcare sharing groups.

There are 4 healthcare sharing groups I considered: Liberty HealthShare, Medi-Share, Christian Heathcare Ministries, and Samaritan. I immediately discounted Samaritan because it involved receiving and paying individual payments to and from other members instead of having the managing organization handle this aspect. This seemed too challenging to me, especially if it was something I would have to manage while dealing with a major injury or illness.

The second I discounted was Liberty HealthShare. Liberty seems like an excellent program for what it is, but it is a fundamentally different product than Medi-Share and Christian Healthcare Ministries. Liberty is a healthcare package. For your monthly cost, they will cover your preventative care, such as annual physicals, colonoscopies, mamograms, pap-smears and minor incidents once the cumulative costs exceed $1500, a fairly low number. But if you were to have a catastrophic incident, you would quickly max out the $1 million limit and the bottom line is that $1 million is just not enough if there is a catastrophic injury or illness and that is the ultimate purpose of a healthcare coverage program.

Cost of Family Membership in Healthshare Programs

	Liberty HealthShare	Medi-Share	Christian Healthcare1
Monthly Cost	$525.00	$433-$510	$475.00
Cost Responsibility	$1500 cumulative	$3750 cumulative	$500 per incident
Maximum	$1 Million per incident	None	None

1: Includes My Brother's Keep optional coverage

That leaves Medi-Share and Christian Healthcare Ministries. Both have significantly different provisions from traditional insurance. Generally, preventative care is not covered, neither cover maintenance prescription, vaccines or birth control. For me, the determining factor was that Christian Healthcare Ministries capped the costs of congenital conditions and birth defects at $25,000. Since we hope we continue to be blessed with children, this is a significant risk exposure for us. I would have to consider the matter further if we were beyond the childbearing stage of life.

We will have to pay approximately $150 for every annual physical, $1200 for our screening coloscopies at the clinic instead of one with hospital association. We will also have to pay for our children's vaccines, approximately $500 depending on the series. Those are hefty bills to pay, but that is the cost of these services. For us, a healthcare package is to cover the cost of a catastrophic injury or illness, not routine wellness.