Medi-Share is a healthcare sharing ministry where members pool money each month to pay for each other’s medical bills. It is not health insurance. Run by Christian Care Ministry, the program had roughly 342,000 members as of mid-2024 and shared or discounted over $1 billion in medical expenses during that fiscal year. While it functions similarly to insurance on the surface, the legal and financial protections are fundamentally different.
How It Differs From Insurance
This distinction matters more than anything else about Medi-Share: no one guarantees your bills will be paid. Medi-Share’s own guidelines state plainly that “the payment of your medical bills through Medi-Share or otherwise is not guaranteed in any way.” There is no contract of indemnity between you and the organization, and no transfer of risk from you to other members or to Christian Care Ministry itself. You remain solely responsible for your own medical bills at all times.
Traditional health insurance is a legal contract. If you pay your premiums and a covered event happens, the insurer is obligated to pay. Medi-Share carries no such obligation. Members share voluntarily, and the organization facilitates that sharing. This means Medi-Share is not regulated by state insurance departments, does not have to meet minimum coverage standards, and is not subject to the same consumer protections that govern insurance plans.
How the Sharing Process Works
Each month, you pay a set amount called your monthly share. That money goes into a pool used to pay other members’ eligible medical bills. When you have a medical expense, the process works in reverse: other members’ contributions go toward your bill.
Before any sharing kicks in, you need to meet your Annual Unshareable Amount, or AUA. This works like a deductible. It’s the dollar amount you pay out of pocket toward your own eligible medical bills during a 12-month period. You choose your AUA when you sign up, and a lower AUA means a higher monthly share (and vice versa). Once you’ve met your AUA, eligible bills are published to the membership for sharing.
Not every medical expense qualifies. Pre-existing conditions typically have waiting periods, and certain categories of care may not be eligible at all. The guidelines define what counts as a shareable expense, and those guidelines can change, which is another key difference from an insurance contract with fixed terms.
Who Can Join
Medi-Share is explicitly Christian. To qualify, you must attest to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and commit to the organization’s Statement of Faith. The head of household submits medical and lifestyle information for everyone in the household during the application process.
Beyond the faith requirement, there are lifestyle criteria. You must have abstained from tobacco and illegal drugs for at least 12 months before applying. Maternity sharing is available, but only for pregnancies conceived after membership begins, and the mother must be married at the time of conception. These requirements reflect the ministry’s religious values, and they are legally permitted because Medi-Share operates as a religious organization rather than an insurance company.
Provider Access
Medi-Share Complete members can access a network of more than 900,000 providers. You search for participating doctors through the member portal or by selecting your state on Medi-Share’s website. Using in-network providers matters because it gives you access to negotiated rates, which can significantly reduce the size of your bills before sharing even begins.
Medi-Share Value members use a different tool called Healthcare Bluebook, which helps them find providers based on quality and price. The emphasis here is on shopping for cost-effective care, which can mean more legwork on your part but potentially lower monthly costs.
The 65+ Program for Medicare Members
For members 65 and older who have Medicare Parts A and B, Medi-Share offers a supplemental program called Medi-Share 65+. It functions as a complement to Medicare, helping cover gaps like deductibles, copays, and hospital stays that Medicare leaves behind. Medi-Share 65+ always pays second to Medicare, meaning Medicare processes the claim first and Medi-Share 65+ addresses the remaining eligible portion. You can see any doctor who accepts Medicare, so there’s no separate provider network to worry about.
Tax and Legal Status
Medi-Share qualifies as a healthcare sharing ministry under the Affordable Care Act. When the federal individual mandate was in effect (requiring most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty), Medi-Share members were exempt. The federal penalty was reduced to $0 starting in 2019, so this exemption is no longer practically relevant at the national level.
However, a handful of states still enforce their own individual mandates: California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Maryland. If you live in one of these places, Medi-Share may qualify as an exemption from the state penalty, but you’ll need to check your state’s specific rules. Each state runs its own exemption process.
What to Weigh Before Joining
The monthly cost is often the main draw. Medi-Share shares can be significantly lower than insurance premiums, especially for healthy families. But the tradeoff is real: you have no legal guarantee that your bills will be shared, pre-existing conditions face restrictions, and the organization’s guidelines (not state insurance law) define what’s eligible. If a dispute arises, you don’t have access to your state’s insurance commissioner or the appeals process that regulated plans provide.
Medi-Share also doesn’t cover everything insurance typically does. Routine preventive care, mental health services, and certain prescriptions may be handled differently or not shared at all, depending on the program tier and current guidelines. Reading the full guidelines before joining is essential, because the details determine whether Medi-Share actually fits your healthcare needs or leaves significant gaps.
For people who share the faith requirements, are generally healthy, and are comfortable with the lack of contractual guarantees, Medi-Share can reduce monthly healthcare spending substantially. For people with chronic conditions, complex medication needs, or who want the legal protections of a regulated insurance plan, the savings may not be worth the risk.