A Religious Alternative to Health Insurance

WINDSOR--Yvonne Mitto didn't have health insurance when she had sinus surgery this winter, and she couldn't be happier. She had her bills covered and, along with them, people across the country praying for her.

"It was amazing," she said.

Mitto belongs to Medi-Share, a health care sharing ministry in which she and other members contribute money each month that pays other members' medical bills.

Medi-Share and other ministries like it are based on biblical principles of mutual aid. Members must be church-going Christians and agree to live by certain rules, such as not smoking, using drugs or having sex outside of "traditional" marriage.

Leaders stress that the ministries are not insurance, and more than a dozen states have laws exempting them from regulation. But the estimated 110,000 to 120,000 people who participate in the ministries nationwide--including more than 350 in Connecticut--will be able to use them as an alternative to insurance under the federal health reform law. Participating in a health care sharing ministry is one of the few ways to get out of the law's individual mandate.

Mitto chose Medi-Share over the insurance offered by her husband's job, and she said her family is likely to stick with it. She likes being part of a community of people with similar beliefs, and says it makes her scrutinize health care spending more carefully. Other Connecticut members say they like knowing who their monthly payments go to and relish the support from fellow members when they need it. And the monthly costs are significantly less than most insurance plans.

"It's an uplifting experience," said Kathleen Cane of Staffordville, a member of Samaritan Ministries International whose medical bills from a heart attack were covered by hundreds of other members. "You get so much more than if you had an insurance company that...is fighting you."

James Lansberry, president of Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries and vice president of Samaritan, said lawmakers were open to exempting the ministries from the individual mandate because they fulfill the mandate's intent. While people without insurance often can't pay for their care, leaving others to absorb the costs, Lansberry said ministry members' bills get paid, not passed on to others outside the ministry.

But some insurance regulators have taken issue with the ministries. The Connecticut Insurance Department considers the work of health care sharing ministries to be insurance, but since they are not licensed, the department cannot ensure that they will be able to pay members' claims or meet other standards insurance companies are held to.

"There's no consumer protections built in, from our standpoint, because we can't look at their books," spokeswoman Donna Tommelleo said.

Under federal health reform, insurance plans by 2014 will have to cover preventive care at no cost to the members and will be prohibited from putting caps on annual or lifetime benefits.

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