Health Care Sharing Ministries Offer a Bible-based Approach to Health Care
WASHINGTON D.C. — Since its inception in 2007, the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (The Alliance, ahcsm.org) has strived to represent the common interests of Health Care Sharing Ministries. These organizations are dedicated to finding a better way to control rising medical costs and achieve price transparency for medical services through the sharing of medical costs with other health care sharing ministry members.
More than a million Americans have turned to Health Care Sharing Ministries. Since 2019, $1.3 billion of medical expenses have been shared by members of Health Care Sharing Ministries in all 50 states.
“Health Care Sharing Ministries offer a Biblical way of sharing health care needs that otherwise would represent burdens,” says Katy Talento, executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries. “These are ministries that allow their members to share in each other’s medical expenses without having to resort to health insurance, which might mean sending their premiums to pay for procedures or medications for other policyholders that violate their deeply-held religious beliefs.”
The difference between health care sharing and health insurance is foundational to the mission of The Alliance. The members and the leadership of Health Care Sharing Ministries work together to freely determine what type of medical expenses its members will share, a stark contrast to the insurance model under which many states require health insurance companies to cover medical procedures or services that violate Biblical teaching—such as abortion and abortifacients.
The dedication to a Biblical foundation is paramount for The Alliance and another way it is distinguished from traditional health insurance. The Alliance has a mission to protect the liberty of its member ministries to practice their religious convictions in health care.
“It’s personal, it’s 100 percent pro-life, it’s our faith lived out in community,” Talento continued. “I think that’s what authentic Biblical community is: caring for one another, praying for one another, bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another.”
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries was established as a 501(c)(6) trade organization to represent the common interests of Health Care Sharing Ministries which are facilitating the sharing of health care needs (financial, emotional, and spiritual) by individuals and families, and their participants. The Alliance engages with federal and state regulators and policy makers, members of the media, and the Christian community to provide accurate and timely information on Health Care Sharing Ministries.
Learn more about the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries visit www.ahcsm.org or follow the ministry on Facebook or Twitter.
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To interview a representative from The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.
