Can anybody talk me out of this?
It’s Open Enrollment season and I’m seriously thinking of turning off my and my wife’s health insurance, and signing up for a healthcare sharing ministry instead. Here’s why:
Our insurance is a high-deductible health plan with a shared $5,000 deductible (the plan does not cover any non-preventive expenses until you pay that deductible).
With traditional medical insurance:$4320 – Amount spent on premiums in 2015
$750 – Amount of before-discount preventive care the doctors billed this year (only about $150 or $200 was actually paid by the insurer to the doctors; the rest was the amount the doctor had to forgive as a discount for having that insurance plan. Presumably, if had had no insurance this year, I would have been billed $750 or more likely considerably less, because I would have negotiated for a cash discount)
$54,828 - Amount such premiums will cost me over a 10-year period, assuming a 5% annual increase in premium amounts (which was our increase every year for past 3 years).
$6700 – Out of pocket max per calendar year (includes deductible)
With Christian Healthcare Ministries:$810 – Amount to be spent on monthly “share” amounts in 2016*
$0 – Amount they will cover up front. I pay all costs and then request reimbursement.
$750 – Amount I might have paid for preventive care in all of 2015, and that is before negotiating a cash discount. (Note: each ministry has different rules, but I've read in at least one of them that preventive care is not covered; members are expected to save for that and pay for it themselves).
$8,474 – Amount the monthly payments will cost over a 10-year period, assuming a 1% annual increase in share amounts
Unlimited – Out of pocket max per calendar year
Edit: *Actually $810 would cover us for 9 months of 2016. You avoid the individual mandate penalty by not having a coverage gap of longer than 3 months. So I'd sign up on 4/1/16, and have a gap for the first 3 months. Or if a year's coverage is chosen, it would be $1080 for the first full year. Subsequent years would add up to...
$11,142 over a 10-year period, assuming a 1% annual increase.
I see this move as very Mustachian. It puts responsibility for our care, our savings, and our financial future in our hands, rather than making a fear-based decision (Safety is an Expensive Illusion). It potentially moves a fat stack of cash out of Blue's pockets and into ours.
Several arguments against it: The healthcare sharing ministries have no legal obligation to pay (counter: I have faith that they will, when or if we ever truly need it). They could go bankrupt (counter: I’d tell my employer I “lost” coverage equivalent, and seek a Special Enrollment; or I'd enroll at our subsequent annual enrollment opportunity). They don’t cover pre-existing conditions (counter: We don’t think we have any). If it was that easy, everyone would do it (counter: Mustachianism in general is easier than working till death, but not everyone does it yet).
This is an offshoot from my case study thread at
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/reader-case-study-move-large-family-to-city-to-save-on-commuting/.
3 options (I'm learning towards the first one):
http://www.chministries.org/programs.aspxhttps://mychristiancare.org/Medi-Share/Public_Content/How_Do_I_Join_.aspxhttp://samaritanministries.org/costs/monthly/