Day #24: Give Toward A Family's Medical Needs Through Samaritan Ministries

Day #24: Give Toward A Family's Medical Needs Through Samaritan Ministries 1

Shortly before we began Give Every Day, Stephanie and I decided to join Samaritan Ministries.

Samaritan Ministries is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Christian organization that helps individual and families care for each other when they have medical needs. Essentially, it's an alternative to health insurance (but it's not insurance - it's health care sharing). You can watch the video for a more in-depth explanation.

Once a month, we are sent the name of a family or individual with a specific medical need and ways that we can pray for them.

This week I received an email from Samaritan Ministries requesting that Stephanie and I send a "note of encouragement and our gift" to Steven & Patricia in Wisconsin.

Steven recently had a shoulder injury. The prayer request was that he would be given a correct diagnosis and would completely recover. Stephanie and I prayed for him, wrote a short note, signed a check, and put them both in a envelope to be mailed tomorrow.

Do you have questions for us about how Samaritan Ministries works or what our experience has been like? Please feel free to ask!

7 comments on “Day #24: Give Toward A Family's Medical Needs Through Samaritan Ministries”

  1. We are currently using Christian Care Medi-Share. Same concept. Are you pleased so far? I would love to hear why you chose Samaritan over CCMS.
    It's a really neat opportunity for the Church to care of one another in such a mobile and changing society. We are glad to be apart of it.

    1. We looked at each of them. Both seemed good, but we knew a few people who personally recommended Samaritan. Everything so far has been great!

      What made you decide on CCMS?

  2. I just recently signed up for Christian Care Medi-Share because that was the only one I'd ever heard of. As a fairly healthy individual my health care costs were completely unreasonable and the insurance I had actually didn't pay what I expected for my last pregnancy. With a recent huge rate hike I just dumped them entirely.
    I looked through the Samaritan Ministries website and they seem pretty similar except that we don't send our money directly to another person and we are required to deposit it in an account each month that they have limited access to to send to people with medical expenses. It just sounds like it's structured a bit differently and perhaps they have had issues with fraud so they do it this way. Sad I suppose.

  3. I think I'd be worried that the people would use the money for something other than their medical needs. Is there some kind of protection against that with Samaritan Ministries?

    1. Samaritan Ministries (and I am sure CCMS) members send in their medical "needs" (bills). The organization assigns who sends the money to approved needs.

      A report is sent back to SM from the family who had a need. SM acts as the organizer and holds everyone accountable for both receiving and giving.

  4. Ahh, I see what the specifics of it are now. (I visited the website). Unfortunately something like that doesn't work for our family because in Massachusetts it is required that every person have health insurance. But I like the idea!

  5. We have talked about doing something like this in the past. I love the concept. We have reasonably priced health insurance through hubbies work though - so decided that the most prudent course of action for us now was to simply keep that in place! Especially with his rough medical history.

    I think what I like best is the prayer part - it isn't just about providing money for the financial need, but it's also about reaching out in a much more meaningful way - through prayer.

Our family spent 2011 traveling the USA in an RV, striving to intentionally "give every day" for the glory of God. We interviewed CEOs of nonprofits and served alongside over 40 organizations and churches.

Our Pledge

We hereby pledge:

- To spend intimate, quantity time with our family.
- To actively help the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the helpless.
- To value, protect, and advocate for children.
- To de-emphasize the importance of “stuff” in our lives.
- To bring publicity to good causes and good people.
- To live with intentionality, as if this year was our very last.
- To observe the needs in our country/community – and then do something about them.
- To give – every day.

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