Medi-Share Fact Sheet

What?

• Medi-Share, a program of Christian Care Ministry, is a health sharing program whose members share resources to pay each other's medical expenses. Medi-Share isn't insurance; resources are shared directly between members. There is no pooling of funds as practiced by insurance groups.
• Healthcare sharing ministries, like Medi-Share, are exempt from the recently passed Healthcare Law.
  
• During the past 18 years Medi-Share members have shared more than $480 million in medical expenses. And, because of its large network of providers, members have saved an additional $140 million in medical costs.
• Medi-Share members contribute an average of $170 (for an individual) or $282 (for a family) per month or more towards shared medical costs.
• Medi-Share is not for everyone. It is for people who agree on a specific set of biblical values and lifestyle behaviors.

Why?

• Medi-Share members are exempt from the new Healthcare Law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), which requires Americans to purchase insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties (see section 1311(d)(4)(H), page 128 of the law).
• Because Medi-Share members are committed to healthy, biblical lifestyles, the monthly cost is affordable and provides options to fit every budget.
• Individuals sharing medical bills through Medi-Share have saved an average of 32 percent (or $945) and families have saved an average of 47 percent (or $2,944) when compared to paying insurance premiums (source: A Comprehensive Survey of Premiums, Availability, and Benefits; AHIP Center for Policy and Research, 2009). 
• Medi-Share members have flexibility in choosing doctors. Medi-Share members are part of a large network of more than half a million medical providers.

How?

• Medi-Share facilitates the direct sharing of medical costs between members so they can support fellow members rather than a for-profit company. 
• Medi-Share members show their membership card each time they visit the doctor. Medical providers send the bills to Medi-Share. Medi-Share then makes eligible bills available for members to share.

Medi-Share

Not insurance, Medi-Share is a member-based program where Christians share each other's medical expenses and is rooted in biblical principles of caring for, and sharing in one another's needs.