Insured

Health care coverage for our family is a major stressor to me. Being self employed, it is expensive and we rarely use health care, but I feel it is unwise to not have any insurance. We wrestle with seeking to trust God 100% in our health issues and also wanting to use our resources wisely in the case of a catastrophic health crisis that our emergency fund won't cover. We've all heard the horror stories of people who went from totally healthy to 100s of thousands of dollars in medical bills within weeks. Do we burdon our family now with monthly premiums that we see little result from, or do we bankrupt the family later in the event that one of us has an expensive medical issue?

The struggle begins when we look at the hundreds of dollars we spend each month for private health insurance and then see how little it has benefited us. My husband for example has been to the doctor once in 30 years, making $180 standard office visit worth about $50,000 in premiums, assuming he has had medical coverage for 30 years. We were obviously very thankful for health insurance when I was hospitalized 3 times during my first pregnancy and also for the second, typical pregnancy. Our insurance paid $7,000 the first time and $3,000 the second pregnancy. We considered that money we saved until we added up our monthly premiums and we could have paid for both of the pregnancies/births out of pocket for the same cost over the years.

Recently, I heard about Medi-Share and it sounds like a great alternative. It is "a Christian alternative to health insurance.   It's a primary health care program with real care at an affordable cost where members share and pay the bulk of your bills for you up to $1 million per incident.  Drs and hospitals do bill Medi-Share directly just like they would insurance using the standard insurance claim forms that they're used to always using." 

I've searched the web for something bad about Medi-Share and haven't found anything. I love that it is Christian. I love that they support people who live a healthy lifestyle and that my money actually goes to people in need. So, with all that said, I guess I am just putting out this other option for medical coverage. My current insurance through Providence Health Systems just went up 30%. Seriously, who can afford a 30% increase? I can't see a downside to saving our family $4,000 a year through Medi-Share and still being covered in case of a catastrophic emergency. Do you know anyone who uses this Medi-Share program? I would appreciate your feedback to point out anything I missed in this dilemma.