Religious Communities Establish around…Health Insurance?

Healthcare sharing ministries (HCSMs) are a growing alternative access to health, facing the often-catastrophic costs of medical care while at the similar time building a religious community. They also permit their members to meet the needs of having healthcare coverage that is part of the Affordable Care Act while not having to submit to government regulation.

Deployed on what are described as biblically rooted principles of community and the shared responsibility of Christians for the requirements of others, HCSMs are not insurance policies and do not guarantee that they will be capable to pay all of their members’ bill. As a group, each ministry’s members takes a “leap of faith,” as elaborated by a ministry member in a recent New York Times article: “There’s a little bit of fear going into it. What if people do not pay their share and what if the money does not come in? But that is where the faith-based part comes in—I am really going to depend on God.”