christian healthcare ministries Archives

How Much Do You Pay for a Doctor Appointment?

September 4, 2019 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I’m curious how much you pay for a doctor’s appointment. And for healthcare in general.

This is not because I’m nosey. Well fine. It’s a little bit because I’m nosey. I’m just really curious about how healthcare works for different families in different circumstances.

Here, I’ll go first.

We pay full price, out of pocket for doctor appointments (specific $$ amounts below).

Our family has chosen to have Christian Healthcare Ministries as our health insurance provider and it is perfect for us. We pay a tiny total of $135/month for this, which I feel is remarkable. We have a high deductible ($5,000 per incident). But we had the same super high deductible when we were paying almost $900/month for regular insurance too. So obviously, we really love the $135. :)

(How happy are we that I don’t have to put stickers over Bonus Boy’s face anymore!!!!)

With CHM, we don’t have a copay for doctor visits. We don’t have amazing benefits, dental, or vision coverage. Basically, we only have CHM insurance in our back pocket in case something major happens. Therefore, when we need to go to the doctor, we pay 100% out of pocket for the appointment.

BUT, the hundreds of dollars we save each month (around $765 to be exact – whoa!) more than covers all of those doctor fees. Plus it gives us a cushion so we can save for the deductible if we need it.

I love that instead of giving so much money each month to an insurance company (it felt like $money$ down the drain!), we can instead put that money toward our chiropractor, natural doctor, and wholesome food. We only go to a doctor when we really need to, trying natural remedies at home first.

How much do you pay for a doctor appointment?

Ah, so I haven’t even answered my own question yet. Our chiropractor costs $45 for a thorough adjustment and healthcare advice. Our natural doctor charges around $65 for a consultation, then we pay additional amounts for the supplements and remedies she offers.

Last time we went to our local Urgent Care for a check-up (Matt and I had to get a physical before becoming licensed foster parents) – it cost us $125 each. And that was apparently a discount because we were paying cash. Hmm. Then we got billed separately for the urine test. (I can’t remember how much those were.)

So all of these come out of our pocket each time we need them. Still, we save thousands of dollars every year going this route.

Do I wish we had a co-pay?

Sure, if the copay was $5 like it used to be. Remember those days? I remember those days!

At this point though, and you’ll have to let me know how it works for you, I don’t think a copay would benefit us. We really, really like paying such a low monthly premium. And since we rarely go to traditional doctors anyway, I don’t think having “regular” insurance would really help us much.

Fun times.

So, $45-$65 per visit.

That’s what we pay when we go to the doctor. Plus the cost of the supplements they recommend.

We go in phases of needing to go frequently and have periods of time that several months go by without a visit. It all depends on the need!

Oh, and last year when Elias suffered a terrible ankle injury during a basketball game, we got to drop a cool $850 for an ER visit with all the perks (like a wheelchair ride). Good thing we save almost that much every month on our insurance premium. Ha!

I’ve been thinking about all of this – the cost of a doctor visit, the cost of health insurance, the cost of supplements – as I have considered this:

Should we pay $37 for this health care option? —>

It may sound funny to think of this as a “health care option” but hear me out!

As this year’s Healthy Living Bundle sale time was approaching. I spent a few hours looking through almost every single product. We’re talking 46 eBooks, 32 eCourses, audios & workshops, 10 printable packs & workbooks, and 2 summits. Phew.

Why did I spend so much time on this? Because I can’t and I won’t promote a product or recommend that you purchase something if I don’t feel confident that it’s worth your time and money.

While reading through so many of the materials, watching the videos, printing the packets, exploring the eCourses – I found that I kept learning new tidbits that would really bless my family’s health. There I was, looking to see what I could maybe share about the bundle as I determined if it was “worth it” – and the entire time I found myself learning:

Better ways to help my kids eat good food
How to transition our baby to solid food in a healthy way (he has four cute little teeth now!)
Tools to give my kid who hasn’t been officially diagnosed, but who probably has something like ADD, and needs some extra love and care when it comes to learning
How to walk someone through a sugar detox
Recipes my kids can use to learn to cook in our Instant Pot
More about cooking great food with just 5 ingredients
How to get a better night’s sleep

There’s much more, but those were some highlights for me.

And then I realized: The contents of this bundle, this package containing $3000 worth of health information and tools, costs less than one of my chiropractor appointments. I have learned so much already, and while I don’t need or want all of the products included – paying $37 to learn what I have learned and I’m learning is absolutely worth it.

Click here or on the image to see all the products in detail.

So I decided to tell you about it.

I’m not sure what you pay for a doctor visit, but I’m guessing the $37 price tag on this Healthy Living package is comparable or even much cheaper. I want to encourage you to check into this because well, where else can we pay just $37 for so much worthwhile health information?

Already bought a Healthy Living Bundle in the past?

Me too!! I have them all and seeing as they’ve been around since 2012, that means this is my 8th one. :) But each bundle is brand new and full of the latest and greatest. I guarantee you’ll learn something new (or if you’re like me, you’ll learn 7 new things in the first hours, ha!).

When the price is lower than a doctor visit and holds so much more information than I could ever get in one doctor visit – that’s when I know it’s beyond worth it to purchase. (Though it doesn’t take the place of a doctor visit if we need one. It had to be said.) ;)

And then there are these:

Really Cool Bonuses

All of this comes with your bundle purchase, which is so much fun and so beneficial.

These are legit bonuses! Totally free, physical items. We pay the shipping, and that’s it!!

I always get the Lymph Rub from TriLight Health because it is so good to have on hand to fight off illness! I like a lot of their other products too, and keep them on hand as ready-to-grab home remedies.

I already also ordered the bonus from Perfect Supplements, Earthley, and MadeOn. So many great free items to help keep our families healthy!

How much do you pay for a doctor appointment?

I’m thankful that we rarely need to go to a doctor, and that when we do, we have great options for natural care. (I’m also thankful for traditional doctors who are there when we need them!) I’m thankful for home remedies and natural home-care options. I’m thankful for everything I can get my hands on to read and learn and grow in ways of healthy living.

So, I’m thankful for this, and I recommend that you check it out and enjoy learning from it too! —>

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Self Employed? What Our Family Does for Health Insurance

June 24, 2016 by Laura 41 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

This post is exactly like the Taco Salad post. Exactly like it.

What I mean is, I’ve had dozens of requests that I share this info and it’s only taken about six years for me to get around to it. (Just like it took me six years to share the taco salad recipe. You see how that makes the posts exactly the same?) I have nothing to say for myself about this issue. Perhaps there’s a home remedy for this??

Health Insurance for our Self-Employed Family

Our family has qualified as “self-employed” for almost all of our 25 years. Even when my husband worked as an employed minister for churches, we carried our own insurance. So trust me when I say we’ve shopped around for the best type of health insurance to pay for out of our own pocket. We’ve experienced all the good, bad, and ugly. We’ve nearly gone broke in the past from paying monthly premiums, and we haven’t had a co-pay option since 1998.

Lest you think I’m complaining, let me tell you where we’ve landed after all these years of trying to figure out the best way to carry health insurance for our family:

We are so super happy that we get to make the decision for ourselves!

Taking care of our own health insurance means we aren’t stuck with what we don’t need or want, paying money we don’t want to pay. We hear from too many people about how much money comes out of their paycheck to go toward health insurance. We hear many a complaint about poor coverage. Instead of dealing with these frustrations, we get to choose where we want to put our money! We’re thankful for this.

We’ve always chosen a high deductible plan so that we pay less per month and instead put our money toward real food and natural/homeopathic/chiropractic care. But with regular insurance companies, even with a high deductible, our monthly premium payment kept going up and up and up. It was horrible, actually.

The worst of it for us was that we really only kept this insurance for major illnesses or catastrophes. As I’ve shared before, our family doesn’t head to the doctor for every sniffle, and in fact, the only time we’ve taken any of us to a regular doctor in the past 11 years is for stitches.

So it was becoming more and more painful to pay hundreds of dollars each month for what felt like nothing. (Not that we wanted anything major to happen, of course. “Let’s get majorly sick so we can get our money’s worth out of our insurance!” said no one ever.)

How we save thousands on health insurance every year

We looked into alternative options for health insurance

I’d heard some of my friends talk about Christian Healthcare Ministries, so at the point our regular insurance premium doubled (again!) I decided to see if their price might be better.

Oh my stars and dollar signs.

Their price was shockingly lower. You guys – our family of six pays $235/month for insurance. The price does NOT go up year after year. I still can’t even believe how good this is. Annnnnd, instead of our money going to who knows where, our monthly payment goes to another Christian family to help them pay their medical bills. It almost makes me want to pay a higher premium. (Except not.)

Now granted, we pay such a low monthly fee because we chose a $5,000 deductible (which is the same deductible we had on the super expensive insurance). We chose the “bronze” level of coverage, which doesn’t cover anything beyond the big stuff because that’s what works best for our needs (since we rarely, if ever, go to a regular doctor).

We’ve saved thousands through the years – putting the money we would have been paying for insurance into savings so we have deductible money if we need it. And here’s the best part:

Instead of paying huge money every month for insurance that covered nothing but catastrophes, we can put money into our natural doctors, chiropractors, and home remedies instead. All that, and we still save money.

I’m not an affiliate for Christian Healthcare Ministries; I don’t get a kick-back for telling you about them. (Actually, I do see that they give incentives for telling your friends. I haven’t yet learned how that works. Hmmm….) I’m just answering people’s questions I get so often about what we do for insurance since we’re self-employed. Just like knowing about home remedies, I believe people should know they have options for health insurance too!

Because they aren’t technically an “insurance company” (though they still meet the government requirements to be considered such) things work a little differently than you might be used to with Blue Cross or whatnot. As a matter of fact, Christian Healthcare Ministries claims, “We are not health insurance. We are a ministry.” I love this! While their system works differently, it’s not complicated and every need and issue we’ve had has been worked out beautifully; every phone call pleasant.

So there you go. Christian Healthcare Ministries. That’s how we handle our health insurance as self-employed family. I can’t believe it took me so many years to finally write this post.

I’d love to hear what you do for health insurance. Do you have it through your employer? Carry your own? Have you tried a Christian ministry option like this one?

UPDATE

Many have looked into Christian Healthcare Ministries since I posted this. It seems that if you give them our insurance number, our family will get a referral bonus which would cover the cost one month of fees for us. What a wonderful perk! If you feel this is a good option for you, our referral number is 145625. Thanks! :)

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Health Insurance…Or Not?

April 11, 2008 by Laura 17 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with health insurance.

I love it when it actually does something to help us (which is rare…but we have had a few times when it has actually paid for something).

I don’t love it during all the times that it doesn’t do anything (except take our money for premiums…and then not cover anything) Grr.

Now that we’ve started using more natural health options, our health insurance really doesn’t seem to be worth having. Insurance companies tend to freak out when you use the word “natural.” Yikes!

We’ve started looking into Christian Healthcare Ministries. With this program, the money we pay each month actually goes directly to another family with medical bills. If we were ever in need, this organization would help us directly, thanks to the sharing of other Christian families. We love that concept, and it just seems to make so much sense.

Christians helping Christians. Love it.

So, I’m wondering…what experiences do all of you have with health insurance…or alternative ideas like Christian Healthcare Ministries?

What are your thoughts on how we as Christians should best be using our money in this area?

Share with me your ideas and opinions!!!

~UPDATE~

How we save thousands on health insurance every year

~UPDATE~

It’s been a few years since I originally wrote this post. Since then, we jumped aboard with Christian Healthcare Ministries and haven’t looked back.

It has been fantastic!

We’ve saved thousands of dollars every year using this. They’ve met our needs fully. They have been wonderful to work with through medical issues we’ve had. My favorite: They didn’t worry about pre-existing conditions.

I highly recommend you look into this for your family!

Our family of six pays only $135/month for Bronze Coverage. That is perfect for our family since we choose alternative medicine if at all possible. Instead of paying high monthly premiums that cover nothing for our family, we pay a very low monthly premium and put money in savings to cover a deductible if we need it and to cover our chiropractor or natural doctor bills as needed.

With the cost of health insurance rising, the coverage getting worse, and the frustration mounting – look into Christian Healthcare Ministries. We are so thankful God has provided this!