Medical cost sharing is revolutionizing the way everyday Americans access the health system. The dynasty of traditional health insurance is coming to an end. No longer will people be forced to pay hefty premiums and outrageous co-payments, only to be told, “Oops, sorry, your insurance doesn’t cover that…” 

Medical cost sharing got started in Christian church settings. It has been tried, tested and improved for over three decades. Even though this was over thirty years ago, most current medical cost sharing communities still insist on ‘proof of faith’ to be a member. In the Sedera medical cost sharing community, we have no requirement of any particular faith. Your faith is a personal spiritual matter. So, you don’t need to prove your faith to us to be a member with IMpact Health Sharing. The truth is that the more healthy people who enroll in our medical cost sharing community the better it is for every other member.  

We are going to take a look at the history of medical cost sharing, and show how Scoop Health and Sedera are bringing medical cost sharing into the future. 

Medical Cost Sharing In The Beginning 

The first medical cost sharing communities were started in church congregations by members who cared about each other’s well being. Groups of hard-working Christian Americans took decisive action and formed together to pay the bills for each other during times of sickness. You could say they were sick of being sick and entirely fed-up with the uncertainty of over-priced care. They were tired of watching their friends and family stress and suffer when something as petty as money could solve the problem. 

Even thirty-five years ago, these communities could see how unaffordable healthcare was becoming – if they only knew how bad things would get in 2020. So, they made their own system to get their members access to care and pay the bills. By coming together to pool their financial resources, the community was able to pay for the care of those who needed it most. And so, the first medical cost sharing community was born.

Most traditional cost sharing communities still have stiff faith-based requirements, though the rules differ from ministry to ministry. So, a person’s faith impacts the community they can be a part of. 

Impact Health Sharing embracesthe power of technology to help our member’s lead healthy lives. It is our mission to make medical cost sharing as efficient and convenient as possible. Here are some important modernizations we have made to the classic medical cost sharing model:

• Our members can choose any provider. Some medical cost sharing ministries restrict the medical providers that their members can use. Even buying into health insurance networks to try to drive down the costs. This really undermines the freedom that is at the heart of pure medical cost sharing.
• Access to member resources. Our members have access to several health resources such as “Teladoc” and “Member Helper”. Some help you to directly track your health, while others help members to get discounts on health-related expenses.
• Faster repayment of members’ medical bills. Impact Health has years experience in medical claim negotiations for the Health sharing community. This deep experience gives members of our medical cost sharing community a unique edge and remarkable stability in monthly cost, year after year.

But this is America and we don’t want to dictate what people are allowed to believe just as long as they can agree to live healthy. In contrast, the Impact Health Sharing medical cost sharing community has no faith-based requirements to be a member. Because every American, no matter their creed, deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare.