It’s that time of year again. ACA Open Enrollment is from Nov 1-Dec 15, 2017 (only 6 weeks) and that means it’s time for me to compare our Samaritan membership to what the insurance world is offering. Once again I sing praises to the Lord for leading our family to Samaritan Ministries.
Honestly, this process has become so grotesque it’s like watching a train wreck.
Here’s how the math works for our family, updated for 2018:
| Insurance Premium: | $2158.54/month for high deductible bronze plan HSA. Medica is the only company offering any plans to Nebraska |
| Samaritan share: | $495/month |
| SAMARITAN SAVES US: | $1663.54/MONTH savings = $19962.48/YEAR savings |
| Insurance OOP max: | $6650 per person, $13300 total with a $12,000 deductible |
| Our Responsibility with Samaritan: | $300 per incident |
| SAMARITAN OOP SAVINGS: | $13,300 (assumes we had 3 incidents per year and would have met our full deductible/OOP, and got full discounts) |
| Insurance Co-pay: | I pay 100% until deductible is met on everything except the free physical |
| Samaritan co-pay: | NONE |
| Insur Premium + Full Deductible: | $37,902.48 (That number leaves me breathless). Almost $40,000 before insurance even helps? |
Some key takeaways from this:
- We would be flat out broke if we had to pay for insurance. Thank You Samaritan Ministries for existing!
- The absolute cheapest insurance option is an HSA with a $12,000 deductible costing more than $2100/month.
- The last line of the spreadsheet shows that if were were to have a couple of medical issues and just meet the deductible, we would pay just under $38,000 in premiums and deductible costs before insurance does much of anything. Oh wait, they give us a free physical. Also known as the $38,000 physical. Sure, that’s the same as free.
- I can pay $495/month with Samaritan Classic (family rate) or $2158/month with insurance. How is that insurance quote even real?
- I didn’t show it, but the Gold plan offered to us is now $3055.87/mo. Do people actually sign up for that??? It’s the plan closest to what we had before the ACA started with a $3000 deductible, $30 copays and all the numbers from the good ol’ days. Apparently the good ol’ days are worth over $3 grand/month. I can’t even stand it.
My deepest sympathy if you are being hit with this trainwreck information in your family and feel lost. I remember that feeling. Please consider joining Samaritan Ministries. Write to me, ask questions, read everything on this site (pages at right) about how it works and how wonderful it is. You could save a fortune and get even better health care in the process. It’s a different way of thinking about your health care and expenses, but I find it so liberating and quite wonderful.
Does anybody else find it ironic that Samaritan Ministries has restrictions on caring for pre-existing conditions, when the actual Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable did not?
Hi John. Samaritan’s policies regarding pre-existings isn’t for lack of caring; they are necessary due the unfortunate fact that money is not unlimited and every ministry must balance available resources in a way to help the most people possible while keeping costs low. Many PECs fall out of that status after only a year of being “cured”, while a few others have longer timelines, but it is possible for many to no longer be considered pre-existing which paves the way for those people to eventually get full sharing. Because of the ministry’s strong desire to help others, most pre-existings can be shared as part of their special prayer need program, allowing for voluntary donations to help those who need it, above and beyond the regular sharing. Prior to the ACA, people with pre-existings were often shut out of private insurance plans entirely, and Samaritan was a harbor for those people, welcoming them as members and sharing in non PEC needs that even insurance wouldn’t. The ACA shifted a lot of that, but considerable expense to policy holders was part of the result. While no system is perfect on this side of Heaven, and the ministry wants to help as many as possible, Samaritan does the best it can with available resources while always striving to do more. God bless, and Merry Christmas!