Our children won’t be heading to college for a few more years, and to be honest I haven’t given a lot of thought to what that picture looks like for our family. Knowing that Samaritan allows students to remain on their parents memberships I just assumed that our kids would do that. It didn’t occur to me that some schools wouldn’t accept health care sharing for them and would potentially require us to buy an insurance policy. After all, HCSM’s are accepted under the ACA.

It wasn’t always the case, but fortunately hundreds of colleges and universities now recognize health care sharing ministries as an acceptable alternative and don’t require a separate insurance policy. If you have a child heading to college soon, I would suggest that you check whether your chosen schools allow that as an option. If you have a student athlete, the NCAA used to require health insurance even if the college didn’t. But now, thankfully the NCAA is also recognizing health sharing ministries and those students do not have to purchase an insurance policy. This is great news as there are many student athletes across the US and those policies could be a financial burden for the student or family, as well as a moral conflict for those who don’t wish to have their health care dollars spent irresponsibly.

The NCAA will be contacting those schools which are affected by this decision, but that may take time, so if you are experiencing any difficulty with this please contact Samaritan or your sharing ministry for assistance. Also, there are still some schools which do not allow health care sharing for all their students, please pray that their policies can be changed as they learn more about what these ministries can offer and that they are an acceptable and legal option under the ACA. If you aren’t sure whether your preferred schools require insurance please contact those schools’ admission departments to see what the requirements are. As there are even some evangelical Christian schools which do not accept health care sharing, it is best not to make an assumption.

At the time of this writing Samaritan has confirmed that the following schools do not accept HCSM’s for their students:

Baylor University: Waco, TX
East Texas Baptist College: Marshall, TX
Liberty University: Lynchburg, VA
Northland Baptist Bible College: Dunbar, WI
Mercer University: Macon, GA

There may be others, so please do your due diligence to verify the requirements of your school.