PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2023

COVER STORY

AN ALTERNATIVE TO HEALTH INSURANCE Peoria-based Samaritan Ministries is part of a rising trend of health care consumers choosing sharing ministries to pay medical bills

BY PHIL LUCIANO PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

A nthony Hopp turns a bit sheepish when recalling the first time he depended on Sa maritan Ministries to cover medical claims. At the time, the Peoria-based health care sharing ministry, or HCSM — “We are not insurance,” the company’s web site states — had been operating for just four years. Hopp and his wife had taken their 1-year-old son to a hospital for testing, diagnosis and treatment, racking up “thousands of dollars” in costs, he said. As time passed and the bills piled up, so did the couple’s anxiety. “We were a little nervous about how these bills were going to be paid,” Hopp confided. The doubt now seems misplaced, and not only because his son turned out to be fine. Rather, members of Samaritan Ministries are to trust Jesus Christ and each other to cover health care costs. Further, Hopp did not just belong to Samaritan. He was an employee. So, he felt tremendous relief — along with a bolstering of his faith — as the bills got covered. Unlike traditional in surance, Samaritan members do not pay premiums. Rather, as directed by the company, they send monthly checks to other members with medical bills. Those checks often come with notes of encouragement and prayer.

“There’s so much blessing that’s not expected,” Hopp said. A GREATER RETURN ON INVESTMENT Twenty-five years later, Hopp remains with Samaritan, as vice president and chief purpose officer. His family is one of 80,000 households and 265,000 people participating in Samaritan. They are part of what observers call an upsurge of interest and membership in HCSMs, which have swelled in participation to 1.7 million Americans. Many say they believe HCSMs provide a better bang for the buck. With Samaritan, monthly costs can vary. But most households pay $596 a month (soon to rise to $634). Samaritan acts as a clearinghouse to review claims. Pre-existing conditions are not covered, and members are required to pay any one-time medical fees of $400 or less. At Samaritan’s direction, payments are sent member to member. About $30 million a month is shared, about $1 billion every three years. Those are impressive numbers con sidering Samaritan’s humble begin nings. It was started by painting con tractor Ted Pittinger in his Washington home in the early 1990s. He patterned the organization after a predecessor

HCSM, tweaking the business mod el before recruiting fellow believers, mostly in central Illinois. Faith is key to HCSMs, most of which follow biblical directives. Samaritan requires members to not only attend a Christian church but provide doc umentation thereof from a pastor or other church official. Medical problems caused by the organization’s definition of immorality, such as substance abuse or extramarital sex, generally will not be covered. LESS OVERHEAD, LITTLE OVERSIGHT In fact, HCSMs are not bound to cover any claim. Though state and federal regulations oversee standard insur ance, HCSMs, in that they are not insur ance companies, do not undergo such scrutiny, including minimal benefits set by the Affordable Care Act The ACA marketplace looms as too expensive for some participants in HSCMs. In part, the lower cost can be attributed to less overhead. For exam ple, with Samaritan Ministries, no more than 15% of total payments go toward administration. In the insurance indus try, that fraction can go as high as 20%. As budget-conscious consumers take closer looks at HCSMs, so are some

50 OCTOBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE