Jesus Apparently Doesn’t Heal
You may have seen or heard the ads for various “Medical Cost Sharing” plans. These mostly religious-based plans, which are not run by those nasty health insurance companies subject to regulation and backed by guarantee funds, sound like credit unions for medical services.
Allowed under an exception to the Obama Care law, these are completely unregulated plans and have premiums much lower than insurance plans. They were pitched as a way to share medical costs with fellow believers, although I don’t think there were any Jewish, Muslim or Hindu plans.
One big one in the Missouri Christian Community was MCS, which advertised:
"MCS Medical Cost Sharing is a 501 C3 Non-Profit Faith-Based Corporation that helps you pay your healthcare costs. MCS Medical Cost Sharing is a community of like-minded people who rely on each other to pay their medical bills. Our ministry is ideal for those who find traditional healthcare costly, lost healthcare coverage, or do not like dealing with Obamacare."
Apparently, even though Jesus watches what everyone does all the time, he did not keep his eyes on James McGinnis and Craig Reynolds of St. Joseph, Missouri, who pitched the plan to “like-minded Christians” while spending roughly 4% of the income for medical claims and keeping the rest for themselves.
When members started complaining, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (later the fist-pumping, running senator) tried to mediate a settlement between the owners and members, but got nowhere. Presumably, he was busy suing China for causing Covid.
I’m sorry that that these mostly middle-class people were stung, but it is with a bit of schadenfreude that I note that Texas Pastor Jeff Gore put in $4k over several years for fees, and never got a dime out of the fund. "It's ridiculous," he said, "I mean it's been five or six years and the feds are just now getting involved.” I guess we do need the federal government after all.
Now the Feds have shut MCS down, although no one has been indicted yet.
I know that gambling in Missouri is still illegal, but I’d bet that the cash McGinnis and Reynolds withdrew from MCS didn’t hit their tax returns. I’d also bet that if they go to Club Fed, the over/under will be 3 years, making it a pretty good deal in terms of a yearly salary.
Where were you, Jesus?