Yeah, so fortunately, with everyone campaigning, it’s a downtime. Some of your listeners might agree, when they’re not actually working, sometimes it’s better. I think I’ve mentioned in the past, we’re working a little bit in Colorado in New Mexico. Unfortunately, there had to be a couple of lawsuits there just from the way the state was treating the ministries. So just going through that legal process there to try to protect the liberties of our members. And then hopefully post-election, we’re going to hit the ground running.
We have 33 states that have clarified that we are not insurance within their insurance code. And hopefully, post-election, we’re going to expand that in a 34th state, looking at Ohio in that case. So yep, post-election hit the ground running. And then new year, hopefully looking for maybe some tax deductions. Missouri, Indiana allow our members to deduct their shares on their taxes, love to extend that to a few more states in 2025.
Awesome. Awesome. This is just a personal question for me. Any chances of that happening in our home state of Pennsylvania here?
Probably not right immediately.
Yeah, yeah. So good. Yeah. We’ll be keeping an eye on that, Joel. Thanks so much. Kind of a similar question here. You know, how would either outcome at the polls in a week and a half impact two things: number one, the healthcare as a whole and number two, health sharing in particular and what you guys do?
Yeah, so I think healthcare in full, um, I think hopefully better transparency. That’s been an issue actually in both administrations. And I give credit to the Biden administration for expanding that. Hopefully, we’ll see that move away from dispute resolution, where it’s kind of at now, to more open pricing so that there doesn’t actually have to be this dispute resolution between the provider and the patient. And that’s for our members who are cash pay uninsured, knowing what stuff actually costs would be huge.
Looking forward to that. Definitely looking forward to the protection of life. I know that, you know, one direction sees euthanasia and abortion as health care. Another candidate, I think, is pretty sure they’re not going to see it that way. Reversal of the abortion pill, things like that. For health care sharing, I would really love, speaking of taxes, to get health savings accounts, HSAs, opened up, ideally, just broadly open to anybody that wants to use one of those, even without insurance. We’ve been working on that for probably a dozen years now, trying to get it extended to healthcare sharing. Since we’re not insurance, you have to have an insurance policy backing the HSA. Love to open that up for our members to be able to use that alongside their membership.
Awesome. Awesome. So, you know, Joel, we know we’ve talked about it on the show. A lot of prices of everything have gone up and, you know, as good as the Samaritan ministries have been and keeping their prices low for sure. I’m sure you guys have had to feel that maybe you’ve had to adjust to that silent killer of inflation. But tell me this: how is Samaritan Ministries still an incredibly cost-effective option for believers when it comes to health care?
Absolutely. Yeah, so it’s a fraction of the cost of insurance. First of all, and the thing I talk about a lot is that folks go and buy insurance on the marketplace or go get insurance on the private market, they often have to trade off monthly affordability for that deductible. They find something they can afford a month and they think they’re good. And then they go to use it, and it’s got, you know, a $10,000 or $15,000 deductible, and they find well, this thing that they’ve paid for is not actually that usable because they have to meet such a high deductible. And so that is something to consider, especially with subsidies. You may find a plan that looks affordable, but then the deductible is so high. And that’s one of the things I’ve really loved about Samaritan is that my personal responsibility, the initial unshareable is what we call it before the members start helping is very low. So it’s actually usable.
And beyond that just choice. Not locked into providers, not locked into certain areas, and so I have complete freedom of my healthcare dollars.
Yeah, it’s awesome. And folks, if you’re new to the program and you’re hearing us use this language, Joel, if you can, please do feel free to tell me if I’m wrong with this, but it seems like the language of a deductible is basically synonymous with that initial unshareable amount that’s kind of Samaritan Ministry’s version of a deductible and you tell us it is a fraction of what most of these big, you know, companies use. I got to tell you from personal experience, it’s the same for me as well. I mean, it is so affordable. I was telling you off the air here, I have a couple of needs right now. And I am so delighted to know that when it’s all said and done, that amount that I’m responsible for is small potatoes. It really is. So that’s wonderful stuff, man.
You know, Joel, many members will wonder, and guys, why don’t we push the Agra Report? We probably won’t have time to do it for this segment here. We have a lot of members who might be wondering, what should I do if I face a massive medical bill, like a surgery, for example, and they need to pay it immediately before the checks start coming in? How would you advise members to go about this if they’re facing a bill that’s $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, and they might not have that money on hand right now, knowing that the checks are going to come in eventually? How would you advise them to kind of go about that?
Yeah, no, and that’s understandable. That can be scary. I would say first, just kind of take a breath. I mean, I’ve been there too. Almost universally, that’s going to be something that is not an emergency. So first, I would decide, is this the right provider? I mean, you have that freedom to go to different providers. And there may be one that’s not as hardline as that, and so you don’t have to be locked into the one that’s making you pay $70,000 immediately. And I would also be asking what kind of discount then is available. Because if you have insurance, your insurance company’s not going to pay that at the service either. So what kind of discount are you getting?
Beyond that, we always say, I mean, Samaritan is just one way to meet healthcare needs. Not everyone’s in this position to ask family or their church. But that’s also an option to talk to your family. You know, is there somebody that can help you out with a portion of that? Or maybe your local church? You can also, I mean, depending on what your retirement looks like or what your different equity looks like, I know that my 401k has a provision where I can borrow from that within an emergency. So those are all options there. And then in some rare cases, we have been able to pre-publish needs and push out money out of our Member Assistance account to two members in those situations, especially when there’s that large discount on the back end on that. So we do have some resources to help outside of, you know, the members have given graciously to our Member Assistance fund. And we can use that in those types of situations.
Yeah, yeah. Man, that’s awesome. So many good things about it. Joel, you know, you mentioned the discount that you get, it’s actually what I found is it’s just a whole lot cheaper to do Samaritan Ministries in every level, like the vital procedure is cheaper, the cost that you pay is cheaper, as talked about earlier, but then also the freedom to be able to go wherever you want to not have to worry about those pesky network requirements or anything like that. It really is good stuff.
Joel, I appreciate you coming on the program so much, man. Really quickly here, how can we pray for the ministry of Samaritan Ministries?
So I would just say, just for favorability in the new year, yeah, as we come out of this election, that, you know, we just take advantage of the doors that God is opening in different states. See you there. Awesome.
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