Why Self-Employment Doesn't Mean the End of Health Coverage for Your Family
As small business owners, we know the struggle of keeping health insurance is real. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we thought we’d share a little about Christian Healthcare Ministries and our experience as members since 2016.
Christian Healthcare Ministries prides itself as “an affordable, biblical, and compassionate healthcare cost solution for Christians in all 50 states and around the world. We’re not health insurance; rather, we're the first and longest-serving health cost sharing ministry, having shared more than $3.5 billion in our members’ medical bills.”
We have found their tiered system of coverage (bronze, silver, and gold) to be a flexible and affordable healthcare option for our growing family.
Christian Healthcare Ministries: Coverage While Pregnant
We were under CHM when we had Caden and Emilyn (our second and third). Because I was on the gold level of care and received a cash-pay discount (that met the $500 personal responsibility) with my healthcare providers, we received 100% coverage of prenatal and delivery care. This was especially helpful to us, as we had all three kiddos with midwives. (Our firstborn came along in 2015 when we were under conventional healthcare insurance, and midwife care was not covered so we had to cashflow it.)
Christian Healthcare Ministries: Coverage for a Broken Leg
In 2017, Jaxson our oldest, broke his femur and the hospital bill for a spica cast and a one-night stay was over $30,000. We ended up getting a cash-pay discount (because we asked!) bringing it down significantly. Because Jaxson was under silver care, we were only out of pocket $1,000 ourselves, and CHM reimbursed us for the rest.
Jaxson being such a trooper with his spica cast during the hardest eight weeks of our lives.
Healthcare Coverage for the Self-Employed
For typical medical incidents that are under the threshold of shareable expenses, we either try to cashflow it in our monthly budget or use savings. If you select gold coverage, that’s $500 personal responsibility or $1,000 for silver. We are thankful that being self-employed doesn’t mean choosing between healthcare insurance that is impossible to afford or no coverage at all.
We have great peace of mind knowing that not only are we helping other Christian families with their medical expenses with our gift each month, but also our family is covered should big medical expenses arise.
For information about how to join, visit chministries.org.