Christian Healthcare Ministries Review
It happened in October of 2013. My wife and I were one of the many thousands of New Hampshire residents who got the letter President Obama said would never come.
Remember, he promised time after time we all could keep our health-insurance plan and our doctors.
He lied, and giving him a morsel of credit, he's not the first President to lie. You can see him lie to you right to your face in the video just below and at the bottom of this post.
If you're a person who says our President forgot to tell us about the plans that would be cancelled, well, he forgot multiple times and his speech writers should be fired. You know the old saying right?
A half-truth is a whole lie. But I digress.
We had moved to New Hampshire in the fall of 2008 from Ohio. Our welcome present was a bump in our health-insurance costs. I'm self employed, so we've always paid this ourselves.
In Ohio, it was a little over $700 for our family. Once we got to NH, it jumped to over $1,100 a month because only two providers offered plans and one of them - Anthem - had nearly 90 percent of the customers. In other words, it was a monopoly situation courtesy of former governor Jeanne Shaheen.
After Obama was elected and his number one goal was nationalized heath care, Anthem bumped our monthly bill to over $1,400.
Once Obamacare was signed into law, the monthly premium climbed to over $1,700 a month.
When we received the wretched October cancellation letter, the *new* plan Anthem offered to us was only $2,122 a month with a $5,000 deductible.
Let me ask you something. What percentage of families in NH can afford to pay $2,122 a MONTH for health insurance?
I maintain not even 0.1 percent. Yes, not even a tenth of one percent.
Kathy looked around and discovered Christian Healthcare Ministries.
It's not really an insurance company because they're not obligated to pay a claim.
That's how real insurance works. If you have a plan and pay your premiums, they MUST pay the claim.
But our research indicated that Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) had NEVER NOT paid a valid claim.
But CHM works just like an insurance company. You pay premiums and then you file a claim if you need medical care.
We went for their Gold Plan, the best they offer, and it only cost $150 per person per month with a $500 deductible.
In October of 2014, I had a horrible kidney stone attack while in California. I was hospitalized and had to have a surgical procedure to remove it.
My total bill for the incident, including follow-up work in NH, was about $25,000.
CHM paid for it all. No questions asked.
I had to have a second procedure in February, 2015. They're paying for all of that too.
Kathy and I LOVE CHM and we urge all to become part of this wonderful program.
Please go to this page to sign up and use our Member Number as the referrer.
They have a great Bring-a-Friend program that allows you to get a free month's premium if you get a friend to join.
Use this number when you apply:
168330
I know you'll have a great experience with CHM like we're having.
It's great to have affordable healthcare and the peace of mind that we can still make our OWN decisions instead of having to be FORCED to have a plan that's overpriced and has a sky-high deductible.
Hi Tim,
Another great tip (7/26) and the link to article about your health insurance. Your last two articles have done a great job describing how incompetent our government is without getting political.
I am 51 and have health insurance through my employer but between now and retirement at 62 or 65 a layoff and early retirement is a distinct possibility. It seems to happen to people in their 50s all the time. I had heard about these types of plans but didn't know much about them. I will look into this.
I hope you are feeling 100%.
Keep up the great work you are doing!
Thanks for posting this, Tim
Tim,
First of all, thank you for your continued great information about construction and the materials and tools that go along with it! Couple of questions regarding the Secret Link videos about the Armstrong laminate flooring product, which look great, by the way.
1. What kind of finish is on the face? and
2. What warranty comes with the product?
Second, I will look into the Christian Healthcare Ministries. Your story of being self-employed and paying for your own health insurance and what it NOW costs, is very similar to mine. If I go through with it, I will surely use your number as the reference. I bet in another month or two, CHM may limit the referrals one can give. Why? I bet you will see a minimum of one year in complementary premiums, and up to 3 to 5 years soon after!
Take care and stay safe.
Art
Art,
Just go to the Armstrong website for the answers....
I'm sure the finish is some sort of durable plastic. After all, it's laminate no different from countertop laminate.
Knowing your right-wing politics from our discussions years ago, Tim, there must be a lot more to this health insurance story that you have told us. President Obama did not lie to anyone, but he did omit to mention that many of the health care plans that people had did not meet minimum standards and would have to be cancelled. He did you and all of America a favor, although I can see you will never recognize it. If you want to be thanked for what you do for people, you should have the good manners to do the same for the President.
Robert,
Obama lied. Look at the video above. I added it to buttress what I said.
Have you ever heard this old saying?
A HALF TRUTH is a WHOLE LIE.
If you intentionally leave out part of the truth MULTIPLE TIMES as Obama did, you're a LIAR.
I left nothing out of my story. You have all the facts about the costs and the cancellation letter.
Please share with all of us how Obama did all of us such a great favor?
Sorry to disagree, We had great health insurance that was very affordable and in 2011 I had a stroke, left artery in neck was 95% blocked, my insurance paid for everything. Today if I had the stroke, I would have to file for bankruptcy. So you tell me who lied?
Thanks for sharing your health care story. I was also a victim of President Obamas lies. My situation was a bit different. I was canceled by Blue Cross of Nebraska. Their alternative was a recommended slight premium decrease with my deductible going from 1500 to 6500.
Yes Robert he lied. I was promised a 2500 decrease in health costs. The math disn't add up. Especially if I got sick. Fortunately Robert he gave me a one year reprieve. Despite his lack of authority to do that.
Robert, I dispute you claim about the president. he sold us a pile of manure, that he continues to do daily, (but that we will keep for another day).
I am in the same boat as Tim and I pay 1665.00 per month because my anthem plan went through the roof as Tim's did. Now I have a down syndrome son who lives with us and is a bad diabetic and needs 5 shots a day. He is 30 years old and we choose to keep him at home as long as we can instead of putting him and institution, and because of his conditions and my income we have no choice to pay the expensive premiums. I am glad that a lot of people have insurance now that didn't but I can see why I have to pay for it because I want to work extra hard for my retirement and now I am penalized for it.
Tim, I'm happy that you have a good health insurance plan. I looked at the CHM website, it is only for Christians not others.
Perhaps there is a similar organization for the religion you practice. If not, consider converting. It's all the same God, right? Or do I have that wrong? I don't believe God cares what religion you practice, so perhaps you become a Christian. Just an idea.
I'm a former fundamentalist independent Baptist. Church Sunday morning and evening, Tuesday night Bible study, Wednesday night prayer meeting, Friday night youth group, Saturday afternoon Bible gospel track distributing. I've come out of it and I'm a good person with good character, sobriety, rational thinking and problem solving for my life, not trusting Jesus to do it for me. I still believe in God. Peace.
Tim,
God cares very, very much what religion you practice. There are five major world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam) and only one is truth. The rest are lies.
The gods of Hinduism and Buddhism are not the God of the Bible. Judaism and Islam claim to believe in the God of the Bible but then refuse to acknowledge Jesus as God's Son, which means they aren't going to Heaven (John 14:6). Being a Christian is believing in Jesus Christ (you can't get the word Christian without Christ).
Only Christianity is all about Jesus. Being a Christian isn't about just believing in God. Even the devil does that (James 2:19) and he's not going to heaven!
Tim, please get your facts straight, and then prayerfully consider whether or not what you currently believe is accurate.
I enjoy your weekly writings, and for those I thank you. But I regret that you have joined the ranks of those in this country who have taken the low road and moved our political discussions into the realm of name calling. You could have made your point very effectively, and in my mind more persuasively, by staking out a position on higher ground...which is what you usually do.
NOTE FROM TIM CARTER: Don, I didn't call our President a name. I simply told the truth. If a person doesn't tell the truth, then they are lying. It's black and white. The President lied multiple times over a period of months thus he is a LIAR. Now, if I were to call him a doofus, a loser, a swine, an idiot, a scum-sucking mutated snake, THEN you'd be correct that I had taken the low road. I didn't do that. I simply stated a fact that his supporters - you must be one - don't take kindly to. I get that. You're simply a defender of the President and you have every right to do that. But to someone who's not got blinders on, watches the video of him speaking and then reading my cancellation letter, they'll admit he's a liar.
Thanks for your reply and the discussion. Please do not assume that I am or am not a supporter of President Obama. I was coming from an entirely different place and was commenting on the sad state of political discourse in this country in general...on the part of ALL parties and most of the candidates for the Presidency. I find it interesting that you would assume that I am a "defender of the President" just because I happen to disagree with your language. On a related note, I once worked with a very good carpenter, who also was a very good person. Due to circumstances beyond his control, the project he was working on did not turn out exactly as he had planned. It would have been wrong for me to call him a liar, even though the end product of his work was not as envisioned. As to health care, I wish that the current plan looked more like the health insurance program mandated in the good State of Massachusetts, ironically a plan that was championed by then Governor Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, in terms of the Affordable Care Act, the insurance industry (the real source of a lot of your angst) and Congress got in the way. Even so, Obama Care is delivering on the promise of providing affordable care to millions of Americans who would otherwise be without a viable health care plan. Thanks for listening, Tim.
Tim, Hey Thank you for posting this on the Insurance, We are considering dropping what we have because it's 900/Mo and they want a 16% increase. Obama really Fk'd America and continues to do so!
We can't afford an increase so we will look into CHM. Thank you!!
Jim
Thank you for this article. My husband and I have been members of CHM since January 2014. We are expecting our first child next month and he'll be added to our CHM membership as well. Much like you, we found out about CHM (and other similar health cost sharing Ministries - but chose to go with CHM after much research and comparing) when our insurance plan got canceled due to Obamacare and all available alternative options were simply too expensive for us to afford and horrible value for money. I could go on and on and on about all the things we like about CHM, but it would be a very long comment. So all I will say is this: despite our relatively short time of membership, we have already had to use the Ministry on 3 different medical incidents and they've come through for us every single time:
1) A pre-existing condition I had, for which I needed outpatient surgery. Bills after discounts totaled over $5,500 and CHM covered 100% of it. Because I was able to obtain more than $500 in discounts that got credited towards my personal responsibility amount, we ended up paying $0 out of pocket.
2) A pregnancy which made us very excited, but sadly ended in a missed miscarriage, for which I ended up needing a surgical procedure. I had already had a couple doctor visits and medical testing done before it was discovered that the pregnancy hadn't progressed, so together with the D&C procedure my bills for that maternity/miscarriage incident totaled more than $4,400 after discounts. Again, CHM covered 100% of it. In addition to it, the whole CHM staff prayed for me and a couple months later I received a call from one of their staff inquiring about my health and well being. I doubt any insurance company would get into such an effort.
3) My current maternity need which is still ongoing. To date I have submitted just under $10,000 worth of bills, of which CHM has paid about $7,500 (including the full amounts for my doctor and hospital compensation) and the rest is in the pipeline to be shared (sharing time is about 90 days on average from the time of bill submission).
In all, we've been very happy with how all our incidents have been handled and shared for. We have their top tier plan (Gold) which only costs us $150/person a month, plus we have chosen to participate in Brother's Keeper with the minimal contributions it requires, which will see our family covered in case of a catastrophic need. Yes, you do need to be a Christian living a Christian lifestyle and abide by their principles, but they are open to any Christian denomination, including Catholics, Mormons, Eastern Orthodox (like my husband and I) and many others. For a Christian who is looking for a viable alternative to commercial insurance, joining CHM or one of the other Ministries really is a no-brainer.
Obamacare may be providing insurance to many people who previously could not afford it. Others, like Tim, have vastly inflated premiums.
This is because Obamacare is basically a wealth-redistribution scheme.