Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) health cost sharing is an amazing alternative to traditional health insurance! It is tailored to self-employed individuals and families, people without employer provided health insurance, and early retirees. People who travel a lot, don’t qualify for an ACA health insurance subsidy, don’t have employer provided insurance, or who want to be able to use any doctor, any hospital, anywhere in the world will also find it especially beneficial. It is also a great compliment to Medicare.
There is a lot of information online about Christian Healthcare Ministries health cost sharing, some accurate, some not so much. This Christian Healthcare Ministries informational website is provided by a CHM member family to try to give you the info you’ll need to understand what CHM is, how it works, and even discuss some possible negatives. We’ve tried to be as accurate as possible but ultimately you may wish to request an info packet from CHM and ask them specific questions before joining. If this website is helpful and you are thinking about joining CHM, please use our link to request or download an information packet. If you use our link and then choose to join CHM, our family will receive a discounted month – it will cost you nothing and it will help us cover the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.
CHM offers four programs, CHM Gold, CHM Silver, CHM Bronze, and CHM SeniorShare™. CHM Plus is for catastrophic bills and is an add-on to the first three programs. The examples on this website will talk about CHM Gold and CHM Plus because that is what we’re most familiar with and is the most comprehensive program. We generalizing a little bit to make this easy to understand, so please keep that in mind. We hope this will be helpful for you. This site is a work-in-progress – we will add more information as questions come up. If you have questions, feel free to click the “Questions” button and send us a message.
What is Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) health cost sharing?
Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) membership works very similarly to traditional health insurance but with several additional benefits.
CHM is a truly nonprofit health cost sharing ministry for Christians who voluntarily share each other’s medical bills. It is an alternative to traditional health insurance for taking care of your medical costs. Cost sharing programs generally are grandfathered-in plans that fulfill or are exempt from the ACA (Obamacare) requirements for health insurance but usually provide more benefits and/or cost MUCH less – especially if you are self-employed, travel a lot, or don’t qualify for an ACA subsidy. Many families who join Christian Healthcare Ministries save well over $10,000 a year compared to their traditional health insurance options – with better coverage! The Christian Healthcare Ministries health cost sharing non-profit has an overhead of only about 10%, so the costs are much lower when compared to more traditional health insurance companies. CHM has over half a million members sharing each other’s expenses. In the last 40 years, CHM has satisfied over $11 billion dollars ($11,000,000,000) of eligible medical bills (before discounts).
If you qualify, and understand the very reasonable requirements and limits, Christian Healthcare Ministries cost sharing can be an amazing option, both in terms of cost savings and benefits.
What does Christian Healthcare Ministries cost?
CHM gold is full “insurance style” gold plan coverage for $255 per month per person plus $32 per person per month for “CHM Plus” unlimited coverage. It is cost sharing, not insurance, but it works in the same way. The most a full family pays is $765 per month, or $510 for a single parent and any number of dependent children – plus $32 each for CHM Plus. There is a $1,250 per person annual “personal responsibility” – your annual out-of-pocket cost – and after that is met, all eligible incidents over $1,250 are paid 100%.
Are you 65? The CHM SeniorShare program can be used as alongside Medicare Parts A and B as a compliment. but is only $115 a month – often significantly more affordable than traditional Medicare supplement plans, but offering so much more. CHM SeniorShare shares 100% of eligible medical bills once they’ve exceeded $500 for the year with no out-of-pocket costs and can be used in all 50 states.
For example, a couple may have been paying Blue Cross $14,000 in premiums a year and had a $10,000 family deductible. With Christian Healthcare Ministries, the cost is ~$6,888 a year for two people ($255 x 2 x 12, +$32 x 2 x 12,), and any eligible “incident” over $1,250 is 100% shared and 100% reimbursed (once the annual $1,250 personal responsibility is met for that individual). CHM doesn’t have additional copays, deductibles, or an 80/20 or 90/10 coinsurance like nearly all traditional health insurances do.
This means for example, if you hurt your leg as an “incident”, the hospital visit, x-rays, a cast, doctor costs, pain meds and follow-up visits are one incident, and if the total of all those costs are over $1,250, CHM shares (reimburses) 100% of eligible bills (after your annual personal responsibility of $1,250 is met). (If the total incident is under $1,250, it is not eligible to be shared, but you can still ask for and normally receive a “self-pay discount” from your medical providers).
You can use any doctor, any hospital, any state, anywhere in the world with no “networks” and no pre-approval needed – choose the best doctors and hospitals for your health issue, get second opinions of you want, no referrals needed. You are totally able to control your own healthcare. Also, telemedicine visits with their licensed physicians are included at no cost. (Note however, that if the purpose of an overseas trip was to obtain medical care, this is called “medical tourism” which is not eligible for sharing.)
You pay providers and get reimbursed by CHM, so you need to pay your providers via check or credit card – or get on each provider’s “easy payment plan” and make some small payments towards your bills. You submit your bills to CHM with a bit of additional paperwork (using their super easy online portal), then Christian Healthcare Ministries sends you a full reimbursement check, usually within in 90 days. Our family has had well over $100,000 of eligible medical bills and have never had any issue receiving the full reimbursement. I’m confident you will have the same experience.
Recently some health cost sharing organizations have shown to have really questionable practices. Christian Healthcare Ministries stands alone in integrity, transparency and living up to every promise. CHM has been a Better Business Accredited Charity since 2013, is audited annually by an independent accounting firm, and has earned accreditation from Demotech, a financial analysis firm. CHM has shared over eleven billion dollars of medical bills (before discounts). There are half a million members sharing each others’ bills.
Everything that is covered (and the few things that are not) are clearly laid out in their guidelines, available in a printed booklet and online. Monthly “premiums” have increased by only a small fraction of what traditional insurance premiums have seen in the last decade. It is a very well established and respected non-profit organization with a minimal 10% overhead. It has an A+ BBB rating. You can confidently join CHM knowing your eligible health incidents will be taken care of as long as you’re a member and you follow the easy to understand guidelines – no matter how extensive or expensive they are.
We have included pages about how Christian Healthcare Ministries health cost sharing works, and the “advantages” and “requirements & limits“. We have a page with short (and longer) videos explaining CHM. We also have the complete CHM guidelines available for review here: CHM_Guidelines_2025_v1 (current as of 1-28-2025). Please explore these pages if you are interested in learning more.
Would you mind helping us keep this website going at no cost to you? We created this website to help people looking for summarized information about Christian Healthcare Ministries, and our family pays all the costs associated with hosting the site and keeping it updated. If this website has been helpful to you, we’d be grateful if you would help keep it “on the air” by simply using our link to request or download an information packet from CHM. If you use our link and then choose to join CHM, our family will receive a discounted month – and it will cost you nothing. Thank you so much!