A creed, a 1999 date, no contract. That is the leftover hole.
Faith.
You should not need a statement of faith to pay cash. A Visa is a Visa. What Congress left standing as a cheap “not insurance” path for a person is church-shaped and frozen in 1999. Here is how that monthly compares to the $27,000 machine, the rules that keep it legal-ish, and why a new copy — Jesus or not — gets a cease-and-desist.
What it is · How cheap · Vs the card · How it is allowed · Why they freeze it · Without the creed
A ministry share is not a preferred-provider organization. That is why it can be cheap.Samaritan Ministries, Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, Liberty HealthShare (Gospel Light Mennonite Church Medical Aid Plan): members send a monthly share. Qualifying bills may be shared. There is no legal duty to pay. You still owe the hospital. The front desk often hears “I do not have insurance.” Sometimes you get prompt-pay cash. Sometimes you get the rack. The Gospels are gift, not a chargemaster. The 2–3× night with a cross in the lobby is a different machine. This page is the leftover hole Congress left — church-shaped, dated 1999 — not a theorem that you need a creed to pay a surgeon.
Self-funded · Flagship · The plant · Hostile world · Cash menu
Classic is about a third of the family job sticker — if you count the whole pile.Samaritan Classic, household of three to seven, effective August 2025: about $699–$715 a month by age of the oldest — about $8,400–$8,600 a year. Save to Share (needs over about $250,000) is a few hundred a year, not a second premium. One person Classic: about $199–$365 a month.
A typical family job-plan sticker is still in the mid-twenty-thousands (employer plus worker, Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits Survey neighborhood). Unsubsidized Healthcare.gov for a family often lives in that range too. Classic is roughly a third of that all-in pile. Do not compare only to the paycheck deduction: that slice can look like $6,000–$8,000. The steal is versus the whole $27,000, which a person who buys the marketplace actually writes.
It is cheaper because it is not that product: no contract to indemnify, a cap unless you add more sharing, pre-existing waits, a religious pool younger and healthier than community rating, self-pay at the door. You are not buying 2–3× on a United card every swipe. Jane still needs the cap, the gap, and January.
Sourced: Classic shares · The statute
Ministry vs the licensed card
Same tower can still bill 2–3×. Different promise, different door, different Jane.
The promise
Sharing ministryNo legal duty. Guidelines, prorate if the pot is light. You always owe the provider.
Licensed planA contract. Appeal, external review, medical-loss ratio. They took a premium.
What the hospital sees
Sharing ministryOften self-pay / Visa. No 837 on Aetna. Cash menu if they have one and you ask. Or the rack.
Licensed planA network card. Bill the plan first. 2–3× “negotiated.” Anti-steer.
The 5%
Sharing ministryCap per need (Classic about $250,000 unless Save to Share). Then you, collections, or Healthcare.gov at open enrollment. The bill that already printed is still yours.
Licensed planMust take Jane (guaranteed issue, essential health benefits). Out-of-pocket max about $9,200 (2025) / $10,600 (2026) in-network. The night is still 2–3×. The pool pays.
Who can join
Sharing ministryCommon ethical or religious beliefs. Samaritan: Christian statement. Liberty: Christian lifestyle / attest. Not the Jewish machinist at a regular shop.
Licensed planAnyone in the metal / the job. Community rating on the individual and small-group book. Age band 3:1, not a creed.
A company
Sharing ministryNot a group plan. Not minimum essential coverage. An individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement will not reimburse the share. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if you make it the only benefit at a secular shop.
Licensed planFifty-plus full-time-equivalents: offer a real plan or pay the penalty. Under fifty: you may offer nothing.
Tax
Sharing ministryMonthly share is generally not an Internal Revenue Code §213 deduction and not a qualified health savings account distribution. Proposed Internal Revenue Service rules and bills (H.R. 2062) would treat shares more like medical insurance — not current 2026 practice to run payroll on.
Licensed planEmployer premium is pre-tax. A health savings account needs a high-deductible health plan, not a ministry.
Caps and monthly shares vary by ministry and program (Liberty Rise is a low annual cap; Unite advertises up to $1 million per incident). Always the guidelines, not a policy. Sourced Classic dollars are Samaritan’s published share chart, not a promise they will share your need.
How it is allowed
Not a magic disclaimer. A frozen federal definition plus whatever your state does with the duck.
The box
The Affordable Care Act hole (26 U.S.C. § 5000A)
A health care sharing ministry, for that definition: 501(c)(3); members share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs and share medical expenses in accordance with those beliefs; members stay after they get sick; an annual audit; and the organization or a predecessor in existence, sharing continuously, since December 31, 1999. That last line froze the club. A 2026 app is not in the box. The federal individual-mandate penalty is $0 now, so the 1040 exemption matters less. State insurance law never needed the mandate.
The box
The sentence that is not a cheat code
“We do not guarantee.” Courts and commissioners look at the duck: monthly in, medical bills out, strangers, “you’re covered.” Kentucky Reinhold: a religious share can still be insurance. A Health and Human Services letter does not wipe out a state code. Paying your cousin’s MRI is legal. An app that replaces Aetna is what they treat as transacting insurance.
The box
A shop under fifty
No employer shared-responsibility hammer. You may offer no group plan. People join a ministry on their own. Optional taxable opt-out for whoever declines a real plan — not a faith bonus. You still cannot reimburse the share through an individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement, put it in a health savings account, or ignore the Employee Retirement Income Security Act if you created a group plan by paying the monthly for staff.
The box
A shop of fifty or more
Offer minimum essential coverage of minimum value or pay the penalty. Sharing is not that. The mandate locked large employers into a real benefit (or a fine). It did not ban families from Classic. It blocked shops from fleeing into the hole.
They are not trying to delete 1999 Samaritan. They are trying to stop a flood.
The cheap personal off-ramp is a grandfathered church. A secular copy would be easy to sell. That is why the door is dated and creeded. “Destroy it” is two projects that look the same from the pew and different from the tower.
The 1999 seasoning
Congress froze new ministries out of the federal definition. Washington copied the 1999 date into Revised Code of Washington 48.43.009. February 5, 2026: Zion HealthShare (formed 2018) lost a challenge to that date; the Court of Appeals said Zion is an insurer and the seasoning test stands. ClearShare (incorporated 2022) was fined as unauthorized insurance — not a 1999 ministry. The lock is: no new Samaritan, Jesus or not.
The leftover marketplace
Commonwealth Fund: sharing pulls healthier people out of the Affordable Care Act individual pool. The remaining book gets sicker and more expensive. Insurers and marketplace plans hate that. It is a real incidence argument. It is also why the 95% would love a secular clone. The tower still bills 2–3× either way.
The commissioner after an unpaid bill
Washington: Unite Health Share — consumer left with ~$200,000 after $5,000 shared; cease-and-desist. New Mexico went after Liberty. Colorado made sharing arrangements report. That is consumer protection after the pot did not pay — and a tool to treat the duck as a carrier. Both can be true.
The swipe
Hospitals and rented desks want the card: bill-insurance-first, 2–3×, anti-steer. A ministry member is a self-pay problem or a negotiate-down problem (Save to Share even says big bills are often the uninsured markup). They do not need to “hate Jesus.” They need the electronic claim. A shop that posts cash is the same threat without a creed. That is The plant.
Sourced: Washington fines, Zion 2026 · 26 U.S.C. § 5000A
Samaritan without the creed is the shop.You should not need a statement of faith to pay cash. A Visa at a posted door is the secular share: no United in the building, licensed stop-loss that keeps Jane, no Galatians in the terms of service. That is allowed. A 2026 “kind people only” app is the thing they already fined. Do not hunt a loophole. Fire the network. That door is Flagship.
Self-funded — fire the network · Flagship — one sticker · Hostile world — fire the network · The plant
The hallway: Self-funded · Flagship · Hostile world · The plant · Learn · Classic dollars · The duck