Paying for healthcare can be a real stresser for your family, especially when you have a lot of kids to take care of. Here’s how we do it!
I’ll be honest with you, sick children scare me. And when there are fevers in the house, I can do nothing but beg God’s mercy.
That is why this post will not be a light-hearted one. It hits me too close to home.
What I have to say here will not be some comprehensive list on how to keep children healthy or how to afford healthcare. It will not be a commentary on the healthcare plan or a laundry list of helpful herbs. I could do all this, and probably will at some point, but not in this post.
This post is a story. A story of our family’s choice. A choice that works for us. Keeping YOUR children healthy is YOUR business. There is no ONE right choice. With that said, I want to share with you how we chose to think outside the box and the blessings that followed.
After years of using traditional insurance and even having insurance through my husband’s job (that we paid a pretty penny for), we felt convicted to leave the world of high premiums and numbers without names. We were introduced to a company called Christian Healthcare Ministries by some friends of ours. We liked what we saw and decided to drop our “safe” insurance and go with CHM, a Christian cost-share type program where members “shared” each other’s healthcare costs.
In many ways, it was a leap of faith.
In fact, I was pregnant with Emily at the time. CHM would not be able to cover the cost of her birth. I had no idea how we would pay the thousands of dollars it would be to deliver her, but my husband believed this was what we should do.
Leap.
And the Lord provided for her birth.
Then Emily got sick. As the bills rolled in, I wondered how we would ever pay for all of this.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Doing our part to help reduce the bills, we sent bill after adjusted bill into Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM even sent someone in to help us get these bills reduced. Sometimes we felt as if we were knocking heads with the hospital. Sometimes we wondered if the money would be there to pay for it all. After all, we had only been members for a little over a year. We knew how the program was supposed to work. But would it?
And then Emily died.
And Christian Healthcare Ministries took over completely.
The hospital bill was reduced and finalized and taken out of our hands. The money began to come in from CHM and we paid off everything.
Everything.
Since then we have had 2 babies and several hospital stays. We have nothing but good to say about Christian Healthcare Ministries. As it turns out, Fox news agrees with us.
If you have ever wondered about cost-share programs or simply wanted a way out of the health insurance cycle, please visit Christian Healthcare Ministries. Tell them I sent you. My referral number is 112373.
It is a fact of life that children do get sick. Christian Healthcare Ministries gives this mama one less thing to worry about.
Affording Kids Series:
Introduction
How Do I Afford to Feed My Kids?
How Do I Afford to Educate My Kids?
How do I Afford to Entertain My Kids?
How Do I Afford Healthcare for my Kids? – this post
Rebekah says
Amy, I’m curious… how DID you afford to pay for your children’s births? I know a lot of women do home births. That’s not a good option for me, but it is so expensive to have a baby at the hospital in the small town where we live. We have not had to pay for one out-of-pocket yet, but wondering what we would do if this was the case.
Amy says
Rebekah,
I hesitate to share how we paid for it because it is not a matter of something you can do, practically speaking. You see, my father died when I was 5 months pregnant with Emily. My inheritance paid the bill. Provision does not always come in the form we would choose.
Rebekah says
I’m so sorry to hear this, Amy. It is a blessing that you were able to pay the bill, but I know you would much rather have had your father here.
Laura says
Hi Amy. I just read your story about Emily… I’m sitting on the couch bawling right now. I’m so sorry. 🙁
I just have a quick question… did you look into any other ministries like CHM before you started with their program? I only ask because my husband and I are trying to figure out which ministry to go with [we are currently on Medi-Share, a Christian sharing company like CHM, but we are looking into other options, such as Samaritan Ministries] but I was wondering if you had done any comparisons between any of the companies to help you make your decision.
Thanks. 🙂
Amy says
We had friends using CHM, so we could see how they worked and knew our friends were satisfied with them. I’ve heard good things about Samaritan, but recently heard of some people very dissatisfied with Medishare (although they did not say why). So, the short answer would be no…we did not do a comparison because we felt comfortable going with the company our friends had been using for years. 🙂
Wendy Gunn says
Sometimes looking back we can see how God was leading. That’s the way it seems in this touching story of God’s provision and care for your family even through health insurance. Your words are so true, in your comment back, “Provision does not always come in the form we would choose.” It rarely comes in the way we expected, it seems. Thanks for sharing from your heart, Amy.
Wendy
Brittney - Our Greener Acres says
Thank you for sharing that. We have never been happy with traditional health insurance but have always felt stuck with no other options. This will give us something to think about. I will definitely use your referral number if we decide to use this option.
Christy dR says
My parents have been using Samaritan ministry for a long time. It’s about the same thing, but it is for low income families ( my family is on a “missionary salary). 🙂
Karin says
Thanks for this post, Amy. Our family joined CHM last fall, but ‘fortunately’ we have not had the opportunity to need them. I appreciate your personal testimony!
Debra Worth @ Happy To Be Home says
I’ve been wanting to look into something like that. We have friends that did something similar called Medishare. Mark starts a job that pays for healthcare in a couple weeks so we probably should start looking into it now!
Autumn says
Amy,
My husband & I JUST had this conversation last night. After much prayer, we have asked the Lord to bless us with as many or as few children as he sees fit & on His schedule. We know to be anxious for nothing, but still have worries about the possibility of a large family, even though it is our desire. The healthcare bills are the number one worry: my husband is self employed & I stay home with our girls. My husband said last night he wished there was a program out there that would share expenses in order to take care of one another. I prayed about it last night & read your post this morning…God always provides in His way & time!
Thank you for the information!!
Amy says
That is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Jan says
I’m just curious, how does this Christian Healthcare Ministries work for regular checkups for kids or dental appointments etc.?
Just wondering.
Our fmaily is in transition right now and this seems like it might be a good option for us!
Thanks for blogging on it!
Amy says
It depends on your giving level. We do not have checkups covered, but have been able to find doctors who work with us and give a discount off the top. You would have to choose the giving level that fits your family best.
aurie says
This is interesting – I never knew programs like this exhisted! Thank you for this – we have insurance through my husband’s job, but having an option would be a good thing.
Sherri says
Amy thanks for blogging about this Amy.
We feel TOTALLY ripped off by our “traditional” insurance… paying $350/month (our portion, my husband’s co. pays the rest) for a total of $4200/year & for that premium, we have “privilege” of only having a $500 deductible/family member ($1500 max./year) & STILL have to pay 25% of all bills after our deductible has been met?! I just don’t get it…
BUT… I too am concerned about the up-front, out-of-pocket costs with these cost sharing plans. A well-check at our Peds office right now costs $195 & that’s if they do NOTHING else. (Vax’s run anywhere between $150 – $250 per shot…) My husband & I have talked about it thru & we just don’t see how we could possibly handle that… not to mention the sick visits. We just went thru 5 in 1 month due to a stubborn round of pink eye, in addition to Emme’s 6 mo. well check… 🙁 According to my calculations, that would’ve cost us $920 in office visits & medication for just that one month (nearly half of my husband’s monthly take home pay.)
We just kinda think we don’t make ENOUGH money on a monthly basis to participate in a cost sharing plan… Do you have any advice for doubting minds???
Amy says
Sherri,
I understand where you are coming from. Honestly, $350 a month isn’t too bad. Ours w/ my husband’s company was going to run us over $600! For us, it is simply a matter of faith that it will work out. I don’t have any real great answer that would sway you one way or the other. 😉
Sherri says
Thanks again Amy… We’ve been told before that our insurance leans toward the “better” side of what’s out there. But it certainly doesn’t feel that way when the bills start rolling in. It feels like what they are charging US should be what the insurance is paying & THAT should be ALL.
I suppose one thing that keeps holding us back is the fact that every time we hear someone speak about these cost sharing programs, we hear wonderful stories of people who ended up paying nothing out-of-pocket. Which is awesome! But it also makes it sound almost too good to be true. :-/
Amy says
We do get significant discounts and what little we do pay out of pocket for the big things does eventually get reimbursed. (we try to set up payment plans with everyone so that we are paying “in good faith”, then when the CHM check comes in, we pay the rest off and then pay ourselves.) It’s unfortunate your area doesn’t barter. We lived in a big city and found it to be quite easy to find doctors and hospitals who would work with us. But, as I said in the beginning of this post, it really is a personal decision by family and not something that works for everyone.
Teresa says
Remember what they charge your insurance is not what they charge the self pay person. I have found it is 25-50% less. And sometimes more if you ask for a discount when you pay at your visit. My well baby is $45.00 after my discount. We also do not do all the shots. Please look into the shots and at the very least never give more than 2-3 shots at a time. It is so hard on a little body.
We have a wonderful christian Dr who works with us. That is worth paying more for. I went in two years ago with a really sore throat. She new it had to be bad if I came in. She not only gave me the medication as a sample for free, but told me she would take a pan of my famous brownies for the Dr’s fee.
Also we have found a family practitioner can do just as much and normally cost less than a pediatrician office. Plus you are not sitting in a room of sick kids every time you go there.
Sherri says
Thanks for your reply Teresa. I may just ask my Dr.’s office what they would charge if I didn’t have traditional insurance & see what they say. I do know that because we live in an urban area… that is highly medicalized… we already pay more than a lot of other areas of the country.
And we do selectively vaccinate, but still… I’m assuming the 2 shots that my little girl r’cvd. last month couldn’t be reduced… and would’ve cost us about $400 alone out-of-pocket. I honestly don’t know how we would’ve paid for it.
My Mom tells me stories of Dr.’s like you mentioned… that would barter with ya… but like I said, our area is just not populated with this kind of Dr. Trust me, I’ve asked around… desperately. 🙁
Teresa says
We have had Samaritan for ten years and have been so blessed. We have had 3 of our 4 children with them and a few other needs as well. The staff is so helpful and the cards and gifts you get as members with needs is much appreciated. I love the fact I can be put on the prayer list at any time and have thousands of people praying for the need.
Please let me know if anyone has any questions or wants to join. It really is affordable and I know they don;t fund things that I would not find biblical:)
Sherri says
Teresa, I’ve looked at Samaritan before & was just wondering about what seems like “extra” plans… can you speak to those a bit?
The CHM seems to be more all-encompassing. Am I wrong in that conclusion??
Teresa says
I think they both have different pros depending on your needs. I know they have a extra for a motor vehicle, this saves us on our auto insurance as we don’t have to have as high of a medical part. They also have a extra if your need goes over a certain amount (can not remember what it is). Not all share plans out there have this and lets say you have 250,000 in a need. then once you reached your max they don’t pay anymore.
What is nice with Samaritan is you have a $500 deductable. If you get any part of your bill reduced by over $500.00 you then pay nothing. I have never had a problem getting our needs reduced and have never paid the 500.00. I was concidered uninsurable when we became members. The insurance for me alone would have been 1200.00 a month with a 1000.00 deductable. We know pay about $360 a month for all 7 of us. Then for regular visits we spend about $400 a year out of pocket. That is way less than anyone else I know for a family our size.
Kristen says
After looking over the website a bit, I was just wondering which “level” your family chose. It seems to be that the only real difference is a bit more coverage with the “gold” level, and higher deductibles for the other levels. Is that correct?
Amy says
We are on the silver plan. 🙂
Penny says
I had not heard of Christian Healthcare Ministries before. Thanks for sharing your information and opinion.
Belita says
I just found your blog about CHM as I am ready to sign up. Thank you for sharing your story! It’s nice to hear a personal testimony about how well CHM works that is not coming from their website. And you’re right it feels like a scary leap of faith! I don’t have anyone referring me to CHM yet and will enter your number if that’s how it works 🙂 God bless you and your family!
Amy says
Thank you so much, Belita!
Kate Weink says
Hi Amy,
My family of 5 (hopefully soon to be 6 if God blesses us with a precious baby through adoption) currently has “typical health insurance”. We are self employed and buy our own insurance for almost $800/month. That doesn’t include dental, vision, a $4000 deductible/yr etc. I have ordered the packet from CHM and am praying for God’s wisdom and blessing for our family to drop our health insurance (it will go up to $1300/mos in 2015)
Thank you for posting this awhile back … I’ve been following you since September 2013 when we decided to homeschool our 8, 5, and 3 year old children. Thank you for being an inspiration and encouragement to me! And thank you for being “real” and for sharing your joys and struggles!
Many blessing to you and your family!
Kate Weink