Frank Benefits

Honest Health and Life Insurance in Yakima, WA

There are many ways to pay for healthcare. Health insurance is just one of them.

Do you identify with these statements?

  • I either pay too much for health insurance or don’t have any health insurance at all right now
  • I rarely see the doctor – mostly because I’m healthy, but sometimes because it’s either inconvenient or I don’t want to pay to find out that it’s nothing
  • I haven’t had any major issues in the past 2-3 years
  • I would say that I live a healthy lifestyle
  • I’m open to other forms of paying for healthcare outside of health insurance
  • I’m 64 years old or younger

If all of those statements above are true for you, we recommend the following (disclaimer: these are NOT health insurance plans, but an alternative way of paying for healthcare – which means you will be a cash-paying patient, but we have personally seen these plans work VERY well for a lot of people – including ourselves!):

Our Recommended Plan:

  1. Direct Primary Care (DPC) membership:
    • This is a membership to a primary care physician or similar provider.
    • 95% of your healthcare can be managed with this membership. Membership works well with primary care because you want guaranteed access when you need it, not paying someone every time you have a question, small injury, or want to make a change in your diet. Your goal is to get and stay healthy, and a membership guarantees that is also the goal of the provider.
    • While many Direct Primary Care clinics operate similarly, make sure they include the following:
      • No copays or office visit charges
      • 24/7 telephone access
      • At-cost, or cheaper options for third-party services and products (things like medications, if they dispense them, X-rays, Ultrasounds, Labs, etc.)
      • Same or next-day visits for urgent needs
      • Monthly cost should be $150/month or less for individuals and $350 or less for families.
  2. Medical Cost Sharing, or Health Sharing Ministries.
    • Instead of insurance, these are communities of people that come together to help share in medical needs, all based around a set of “Member Guidelines” or “Community Guidelines.”
    • Don’t be scared by the terminology – they’ll say things like, “no payment is guaranteed” – that’s to make sure you understand they’re not insurance. They don’t assume any risk for you – they are just saying that they’ll help you out if something happens medically and it falls within their guidelines.
    • Health Sharing Ministries have some kind of ‘statement of faith’ or ‘statement of belief’ that you must agree to and sign (most are Christian-based). Because that might not suit all people…
    • Medical Cost Sharing groups / communities don’t have a statement of faith to sign, but you must agree to their membership / community guidelines and terms.
    • Note: because these communities are NOT health insurance, their guidelines often mention restrictions on sharing in current or pre-existing medical conditions (usually limited to those conditions – all other sharing is often welcome). We recommend reading through their guidelines to understand how they deal with pre-existing medical conditions.

What are my options for DPC and Health Sharing?

If you live in Yakima, WA – here are our recommendations:

  1. DPC Clinic: Assurance Healthcare & Counseling Center
    • Full Disclosure – I (Jason – the lead of Frank Benefits) am a co-owner and CEO of Assurance Healthcare & Counseling Center. I don’t get any kickbacks for recommending them to you. If you want the full story of why I helped put together Frank Benefits – read that here.
  2. Health Sharing:
    • If you’re OK signing a statement of faith, then here are your options (in order of our recommendation):
      • MediShare: they have the most options available. If you’re OK with a higher risk out-of-pocket, then their $12k AHP plan is affordable and pairs well with DPC.
      • Samaritan Ministries: while they require a bit more administrative work, they have been a quality, long-standing health sharing ministry that many people enjoy.
      • Christian Healthcare Ministries: another long-standing health sharing ministry that I haven’t heard many complaints about. A little less admin work compared to Samaritan.
      • Liberty HealthShare: They are still Christian-founded and based on Christian principles, but they have a pretty open ‘statement of belief’ that most people can sign. However, we have had several complaints of slow reimbursement over the past couple of years, so we are cautious in recommending Liberty.
    • Medical Cost Sharing: CrowdHealth They are currently the one non-“health sharing ministry” that is allowed to operate in Washington State. We still highly recommend them, even though they’re the only option that we trust currently in WA State.

If you live outside of Washington State…

Unfortunately there are a few states that have restricted non-insurance options for consumers. If you’re unsure what would be best for you, reach out to us, and we can help you find a great option for your specific area.

Here are a few tips to start your search…

  1. Direct Primary Care Membership
    • Start by doing a search for “Direct Primary Care [City, ST]” – hopefully you’ll find some local DPC Clinics that you haven’t yet heard about!
    • If you’re not happy with that search, try searching on this tool: https://mapper.dpcfrontier.com
  2. Health Sharing Ministries – our same list of recommendations from above:
    • MediShare: they have the most options available. If you’re OK with a higher risk out-of-pocket, then their $12k AHP plan is affordable and pairs well with DPC.
    • Samaritan Ministries: while they require a bit more administrative work, they have been a quality, long-standing health sharing ministry that many people enjoy.
    • Christian Healthcare Ministries: another long-standing health sharing ministry that I haven’t heard many complaints about. A little less admin work compared to Samaritan.
    • Liberty HealthShare: They are still Christian-founded and based on Christian principles, but they have a pretty open ‘statement of belief’ that most people can sign. However, we have had several complaints of slow reimbursement over the past couple of years, so we are cautious in recommending Liberty.
  3. Medical Cost Sharing:
    • Zion HealthShare
      • Full Disclosure – this is an affiliate link. We do get compensated a small amount by referring you to Zion HealthShare – although we would never recommend somewhere without letting you know what we thought about their product and services.
      • We have yet to hear a complaint about Zion HealthShare! We only wish they could operate in Washington State, as we would continue to refer people there.
    • Sedera
      • We highly recommend Sedera as a company as we believe and trust their founder and current CEO, Tony Dale.
    • CrowdHealth
      • We also highly recommend CrowdHealth. While their prices fluctuate, we like the concept of transparency in their ‘subscription’ fee to be a part of their community, and then only sharing in what actually is needed for medical needs with that community (up to a maximum amount). Much closer to ‘crowd sharing’ and a great concept.

Over 65 years of age?

We would still recommend considering Assurance Healthcare & Counseling Center because of their convenience, accessibility, and desire to keep you healthy and out of the expensive medical system.

For everything outside of Assurance, Medicare is going to work best for those over 65.

Stay tuned for information on how to craft a plan with Medicare + Assurance Healthcare that fits your needs specifically.

Have other concerns?

Contact us! We’re happy to see if we can find a plan that works for your specific situation.