"Divine protection," not health insurance

An article in the Washington Post reports on groups of evangelical Christians who have formed a kind of health insurance co-op, paying into a common pot of money to cover members' medical expenses. It's an interesting counterpoint to the recent NYT article about the growing financial risk borne by those who have health insurance:

Huff and his family are among the 60,000 members of Medi-Share, the largest of a little-known group of nonprofit organizations that market themselves as faith-based alternatives to health insurance. The half-dozen plans, which claim a total membership of more than 120,000 Americans, are especially popular in the South. The appeal of these 'church plans,' as they are known in the insurance industry, is both economic and religious. Because their monthly cost is roughly half that of conventional health insurance premiums, they appeal to those who find medical insurance difficult or impossible to afford. And because their membership is strictly limited to evangelical Christians certified as regular churchgoers by their pastors, they cater to people opposed to 'subsidizing high-risk, sinful lifestyles,' in the words of Medi-Share's Web site.

"These plans function just like health insurance, but they operate in a regulatory black hole," said Mila Kofman, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. "There is no accountability, no oversight, and the people who participate have no protection." Unlike insurance companies, which are required to have reserve funds to pay claims, church plans do not maintain reserves.

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