a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/SI9yEeqMiaI/AAAAAAAAAhs/GW3_Tby64DE/s1600-h/smilogo.jpg”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228523113675524514″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/SI9yEeqMiaI/AAAAAAAAAhs/GW3_Tby64DE/s320/smilogo.jpg” border=”0″ //abr /Health insurance has been one of those issues that’s plagued us for almost as long as we’ve been married. Because we own our own businesses, we are not currently eligible for any group plans and definitely not for someone else to cover a portion of our premium. We’ve gone the private insurance route before, but $600 to $700+ a month for a plan that’s still going to leave us with hefty deductibles and copays is just not appealing.br /br /Enter Samaritan Ministries.br /br /I first heard about this ministry on the homeschooling forum I’m a part of, and I was intrigued but admittedly skeptical. However, having been members for almost a year now, I am extremely happy with our decision to pursue membership when we bought the new business (thereby losing our group plan from Sean’s old job – you know, the plan that cost us over $600 a month and still left us with almost $4,000 in medical bills after Sweet Doodle’s birth).br /br /Samaritan Ministries is a group of committed Christians who agree to “bear one another’s burdens” by sharing the cost of medical bills. All members are required to sign a statement of faith and include a signed referral from a pastor with their application,as well as with any medical bills submitted to be shared. (I do not know whether there are similar non-religious organizations out there. I would imagine there are, but I have not looked into it.)br /br /Each family has a set share amount, and the ministry matches the shares with people who have submitted qualifying needs, and we then send our monthly check directly to them. Right now, our payment is $247 a month, plus $13 (I think…) for medical bills related to car accidents and $300 a emyear/em for catastrophic (over $100,000) expenses. Basically, I end up sending about $300 a month to another family. Occasionally, we’ll find out that the needs were less than pledge amounts, and so we’ll send less than usual.br /br /We are still responsible for the first $300 of any incident, and it does not cover dental or pre-existing conditions. Fortunately, however, we can submit special needs, and other members send more as they’re able. We are in the process of doing this ourselves because we’ve had SO many separate incidents in the last 6 months that were just at or under $300 – well checks, physical therapy, an ultrasound for Parker’s birth mark, her x-ray and trip to the orthopedic specialist, and so on and so on. But even the cost of our medical needs since we became members plus the share amounts we’ve paid is significantly less than what we would be paying for actual insurance.br /br /If you’re interested, there’s a list of a href=”http://www.samaritanministries.org/info/html/faq.html#19″FAQs/a on the Samaritan Ministries site, as well as a href=”http://www.samaritanministries.org/contact/html/moreinfo.html”a contact form/a to receive an information packet that offers more detail on the way it works.br /br /br /diva href=”http://www.mylivesignature.com/” target=”_blank”img style=”BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none” src=”http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54486/128/0E4A8EA9D2A4A002FC32D3D163051882.png” //abr /br /––––-–––––-––––––––-–––––––-––––-––––––-–-––––––-–––-–-–––br /span style=”font-size:85%;”Join us this month for a href=”http://mythreedoodles.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas%20in%20July”Christmas in July/a. We’ll be talking crafts, preschool activities, baked goods and handmade gifts all month long!/span/div