(11-16-2014 08:59 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote: (11-15-2014 08:07 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: (11-15-2014 07:04 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote: For the self employed the ACA law is bad bad bad. What is healthshare?
Healthshare organizations founded prior to 2000 are explicitly exempt from the ObamaCare mandate. So if you join one, you are completely and legally (read: without fine) operating outside ObamaCare with what is effectively health insurance. The reason these organizations were exempt is they are religious in nature, and likely the Dems felt they'd get shot down in courts like the Hobby Lobby case.
Yea, I'm an atheist. Yea, I feel a sudden "religious conversion" coming on to join a healthshare.
http://www.libertyhealthshare.org/
How do you have access to particular physician groups / dental groups networks? As an example with Anthem I can load a PDF off of the website that shows the network that accepts my plan.
It works like this. You aren't insured. There is no doctor or hospital network. No one in the health-share is insured by anything. It's a cooperative of "trust"-- Trust that you'll help pay other's needs when you're asked to, and trust that If you have a need, there will be enough people helping to pay your own need so that you don't get left holding the bag. But there's nothing making them back up their willingness to help pay your bills except their "word" when they join, that they will.
Also, if you have pre-existing conditions, forget it. No coverage for them.
Otherwise, once you're a member, everyone who has a NEW (not pre-existing) major expense arise, generating medical bills above a certain threshold, lets the organization know of their "need". The organization informs a certain number of members about your need, to sufficiently cover it, IF each person informed follows through to send you money. Also, they're encouraged to pray for you and send you notes of encouragement. But hopefully, they send you enough money to cover your need so you're not stuck with bills you can't pay.
You hope this sharing of needs program doesn't fall apart, because if there are more needs than money, there's nothing to pay the needs. If that happens too frequently, the organization implodes. If it implodes and you have a health problem, you're screwed. Because losing your "membership" doesn't count as you having a qualifying event that allows you to move to an Obamacare plan that will cover your pre-existing condition that developed for which you now need insurance. Instead, you have to wait until open enrollment.
If you want insurance, buy a short term medical plan that takes you through next December. It won't cover pre-ex conditions, but it will cover you if you have an unexpected major claim. It's not ACA compliant, but it's insurance and backed up by insurance state guarantee funds. If you need to switch to Obamacare because you develop a bad health problem, when the short term policy ends, you switch to Obamacare during next year's open enrollment period.
One main qualifier to "join" the health-share is that you profess to be a Christian. So, if enough people like GTS join, who aren't honest about who they are (an Atheist "using" the system for their own personal gain); If enough of these people who aren't telling the truth, join (indicating they might not be honest in other areas, too--like paying your needs when they committed they would--because by joining in the first place, they're proving they're not willing to be honest, by lying about who they are), then you're more likely to be stuck at some point in the future when you need help the most, because/when they don't honor paying your need, since they don't take commitments seriously.