(11-20-2014 06:16 PM)RaiderATO Wrote:  

(11-16-2014 02:17 PM)G-Man Wrote:  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.

So, you pay money into a pot, along with a lot of other people, and when you have a big expense you're able to dip into that pot and pay your bill.

Sounds a lot like insurance to me. Actually, it sounds just like "non-profit" insurance that leftists often orgasm over. They should be all about this.

Well actually, you can't dip your hand into that pot and pay your bill. Because there is no pot of money. There are no "reserves" (like an insurance company is required to keep). You submit your bill to the administrator, and instead of having that bill paid by the administrator, the administrator notifies several other people in your health share to each send you their monthly share amount. It' a share/pay as you go only type of thing.

And the question is whether enough people will send you money when you need money.

It's kinda like a ponzi scheme, actually, in the fact that as long as enough people think it's going to work for them, they'll keep paying. It's not a ponzi scheme though, because a true ponzi would always be running a deficit. However, not all Ponzi schemes fail--some keep working because enough people keep believing they'll pay off for them. But those that do fail, fail because people started becoming concerned about if they'd "get theirs" or not, if they keep paying money. So that's why I say this is "like" a ponzi... If/when enough decide this isn't going to work out for them, then it's history. People will stop "sharing" each month. If/when enough do, it all tumbles down.

And if/when this thing goes "belly up" nothing is there to pay your huge medical bills if you're left holding the bag for that. You're not insured, so that some state attorney general or insurance commissioner can force the company to pay you. There is no company. There's no FDIC or state insurance guarantee fund. There's just your hope that enough other members will send you money, when you need it.

One reason they want people in their groups to be committed as Christians is so they can chastise them (warning them about their duty as a Christian) to honor their word, if they don't send the money.

But when you get atheists joining who are willing to lie about being a Christian, hoping the Christians will come through and pay their bills if they ever get sick, then the obvious question is whether you can trust such an Atheist who was willing to be untruthful to join (claiming to be a Christian to get in on the good thing the Christians established)-- can that Atheist who was dishonest joining, be counted on to be honest to pay his share if he just decides its also expedient (as it was to join under false pretense) not to pay? What's the motivation to do the "Christian" thing? It's not his commitment to his Christian beliefs.

And even if he says I'm wrong-- by joining in the first place, he already has proven beyond opinion, but by action, that it's not his commitment to being an honest person.

That's why what GTS is planning on doing, is wrong.