Healthshare Plans
What is a Healthshare Plan?
A healthshare plan is a group whose members contribute a monthly amount that is used to pay for the medical costs of the group members. Healthshare plans are not health insurance. Having a Direct Primary Care membership paired with or through your Healthshare Plan would offer a similar outcome as having what some might call full health coverage. Direct Primary Care can cover all your day-to-day health needs while the Healthshare plan can cover the high ticket or unexpected items, such as surgery or an emergency room visit.
The way the money moves is different in the healthshare plan compared to health insurance. With health insurance, the patient pays the premium to the insurance company, the insurance company than uses that money to negotiate cost of medical services and medications. This leaves the patient entirely out of the cost coversation as well as quite powerless in the cost negotiation. With the healthshare plans, you pay into the the membership and the membership pays back out to you. As medical services are needed, the healthshare will return money to the patient for their qualified health care needs. Healthshare members should tell their providers that they are uninsured, self-pay patients. Healthshare members then incur the discounted self pay price on services, which allows the savings to be passed along to all members of the healthshare. By having the financial exchange occur between the patient and the healthcare entity (healthshare), rather than between the financier and the healthcare entity (health insurance), patients are being put in the driver seat when discussing cost of services and medications.
The healthshare plan provides you with security in times of emergency or with more expensive medical services. Simultaneously, it changes the cash flow within the healthcare industry giving the patient power in terms of price transparency and cost of services.
Healthshare Plans for the Individual and the Family
Each Healthshare organization offers different membership plans or programs ranging in price and coverage. Healthshare membership programs start as low as $100 or less and can become more expensive as the number of people on the plan increases or if the amount of coverage increases. Some healthshare programs offer what some might consider only emergency coverage while other programs offer preventative coverage as well as emergency coverage. Many programs available offer maternity care as well as senior care, which is meaningful to most American Families. Look below, under ‘How to Join a Healthshare Plan’ and click on any of the links to connect with each individual healthshare organization.
How to join a Healthshare Plan
The list below is Healthshare Plans where you can seek membership:
Christian Healthchare Ministries
Healthshare Plans for the Employer
Click on the HealthShare links below to view plans that are offered for employers to provide to their staff.
Christian Healthcare Ministries for Employers & Groups
Impact Health Sharing for Employers & Groups
Universal Health Share for Employers
Zion Healthshare for Employers
Can Healthshare Plans be paired with Health Savings Accounts?
According to Liberty Healthshare, yes, you can pair a minimum essential coverage (MEC) healthshare plan with a health savings account.
Will I be taxed by the federal government according to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if I do not have health insurance, but have a healthshare instead?
According to Healthcare.gov, as long as you have minimum essential coverage (MEC) healthshare plan, or greater, you will meet the affordable care act requirements.