While living in Hoyleton we joined something called Samaritan Ministries. At that time the congregation covered all of the pastor’s health insurance plus half of the family. The rest came out of our paycheck which amounted to $400 a month. That was a very large sum. After a while of adding up all the money that health insurance was costing us we started looking into other options, particularly the “health sharing” organizations.

We actually saw it as an add in World magazine. We eventually asked the church if they could take us off the Concordia Health Plan and put that money toward paying our monthly “share” for Samaritan. Instead of paying over $14,000 a year for health insurance for us they then only had to pay $500 something a month, less than what they were paying for the pastor. Over time it’s slowly crept up to somewhere in the mid-600’s now.

A downside for us has been out-of-pocket costs for doctor’s visits. A regular visit with the doctor at cost is anywhere between $400-600. Our doctor has worked with us and we have an agreement now where he will code the visit so that all we pay is $120 which is much more affordable. You have to negotiate prices and annoyingly explain things at various times. You can find more affordable lab prices online at places like UltraLab.

You pay the money and go into a lab place and it’s only about 20% of the cost of paying straight out of pocket through someplace like Springfield Clinic. The 20% might be a lower end estimate but it’s definitely much cheaper. Every month camp sends a check to the person who you are assigned to send money to that month. When you are the one who has a “need”, you receive checks in the mail and use those to pay your bills.

Camp also pays $250 a month toward an HSA account that can be used for things such as doctor and dentist visits. It is not a perfect system by any means but it has worked for our family for around the past 14 or so years. A benefit has been being able to save both them and us very large amounts of money. There are more out-of-pocket costs that do add up and I wish it wasn’t so expensive for health care, but it’s there at least.