[AnnaPali]

Christian healthcare sharers do precisely this. By restricting services and the population addressed (your pastor or priest must sign off on your application), everything's extremely affordable. In particular, as we don't drink, do drugs, use contraceptives etc. we don't pay for coverage of them or their side effects. Obesity's also less of an issue.

There's also the trick of telling the hospital you'll pay "in cash" and getting a 10x lower bill from the hospital, then getting that reimbursed/covered by your private or alternative insurance.

[rfrey]

Christians don't drink or use contraceptives? I think you have to have a pretty extreme "no true Scotsman" attitude to make such a claim. Even the drugs claim is pretty specious.

[ceejayoz]

> Christians don't drink or use contraceptives?

They're talking about a very particular sort of pseudo-insurance plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_sharing_ministry

They can and do exclude whole swaths of what normal health insurers have to cover. They don't even have a legal requirement to pay out at all.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/health-care-cost-...

> Beyond restricting maternity coverage, many groups’ policies state that they won’t reimburse for prescriptions, routine doctor’s visits, contraceptives or mental health or substance use services. Coverage for medical conditions that predate someone’s membership is often excluded, as well. And health care sharing ministries aren’t required by law to limit out-of-pocket costs or maintain large cash reserves to cover members’ bills the way insurance companies are.

[franktankbank]

Pastor won't sign off (unless you come to an agreement).

[hn_acc1]

So are you still allowed real wine at communion then? A bottle of beer after working on your car all day? I know some christians who preach "100% dry", others are more relaxed. Some are fine with contraceptives (including many Pentecostals, which is how I was raised), quite a few overweight people, etc. And they're just as christian as you are.

It sounds like you're going for the "unlikely to need it" plans, which go broke when you actually get sick..

[ceejayoz]

> So are you still allowed real wine at communion then?

I've run into folks who claim "wine" was a mistranslation of "grape juice", and some denominations don't use wine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist

"The elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread—either leavened or unleavened—and sacramental wine (among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox) or non-alcoholic grape juice (among Methodists, Baptists and Plymouth Brethren), are consecrated on an altar or a communion table and consumed thereafter."

[ASinclair]

So your pastor or priest conveniently rejects you if you have a chronic illness.

[tstrimple]

It’s not a death panel when it’s divinely inspired I suppose.

[SamoyedFurFluff]

I would think using contraceptives is not in the same category as drugs or liquor, though.