By ALG Staff
Liberty Health Share is revolutionizing the way healthcare is provided and made affordable — and it’s not even an insurance company. Instead, it is a cost-sharing service wherein members voluntarily pay for one another’s medical bills.
According to organization’s annual audit, “During 2017, the Organization provided health care and end of life assistance to over 87,000 families,” with over $167 million shared among members.
Last week on the Conservative Commandos Radio Show, Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning interviewed Dale Bellis, the Founder of Liberty Health Share. Bellis discussed how his program works to ensure its members get the adequate, cost efficient care they need.
Bellis explains, “We are a nationwide, nonprofit association of men, women, and families who all united around the purpose of paying each other’s medical bills. And we do that without the help of an insurance company or the government, just a regular systematic way of paying healthcare costs in a likeminded community of faith and values where my money every month is going to another person, and then should I have bills, that same group is there to pay my costs.”
Liberty Health Share, founded in 2012, maintains a focus on transparency and community, in which all members pledge a contribution and all money is shared based on the needs and activities of the entire group. When members go to the doctor they present an ID card with an address to send medical bills, the ID card clarifies that this is not an insurance program and the member still retains responsibility for their care, but when the bill is sent to the Liberty Health Share center they organize and pay the cost based on the member contributions.
Health cost sharing ministries were exempted from the individual mandate — which was done away with by the Trump tax cut bill — under the health care law 26 U.S. Code § 5000A(d)(2)(B)(ii), intended for individuals who “share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs and share medical expenses among members in accordance with those beliefs and without regard to the State in which a member resides or is employed…”
Bellis notes that this new, crowd sharing based system is meant to counter the traditional third party-based system which prevents individuals from being directly involved in their care. Additionally, when individuals are not directly responsible, or often even knowledgeable, of their health care costs, they do not actively seek to mitigate costs. Bellis sees this as one of the reasons for rising health care costs across the system. Conversely, Liberty Health Share forces every member to be actively engaged and invested in the cost of their care to work together to seek low cost options.
To learn more about how Liberty Health Share is changing the way Americans work within the healthcare system watch this week’s episode of Conservative Commandos and visit www.LibertyHealthShare.org.
