Health shares aren’t very well understood. Today I want to help you understand what a healthshare is, and what it can do for you.
Today’s guest is Heather Eden. She is the Business Development Manager at Zion Health, affordable alternative to health insurance. Her first passion is my family. Her next passion is encouraging the best health, in all forms. She thrives on thinking outside the box-whether that is making decisions for your healthcare; or encouraging prevention by movement, nutrition, and caring for the soul; or by engaging in solutions for ongoing care for the body. She is fascinated by the human body and passionate about physical movement in all forms, most inspired by anything adrenaline-producing or by the stillness of yoga and mediation.
Full disclosure, I am an affiliate for Zion Healthshare but I am also a user, and it’s the healthshare that I have found most comfortable. This link will take you to their DPC program. I appreciate it when you say you heard about them from me.
Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — by getting in routines, and finding helpful partners like Healthshares — it makes every day easier (to handle when kids get crazy). 🙂
In this episode
What a healthshare is
How the deductible (or IUA) works.
How pre-existing conditions work
Other things that might interest you
Making the choice to use a healthshare episode
Finding a Healthshare as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Why I left Liberty healthshare and why I picked Zion Healthshare.
Producer: Drew Erickson
Check out my other parenting podcasts:
Transcript
[00:00:00.130] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast today on episode 126, we’re circling back to Health Shares. It’s the beginning of the year. You guys might be thinking more about finances and why the heck you pay such a giant premium for your insurance? So let’s untangle it.
[00:00:24.930] – Hilary Erickson
Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls podcast where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life’s tangled, just like my hair.
[00:00:48.310] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, guys, before you get started, did you know that you can subscribe and leave a review like at the same spot? It’s so multitasking. Totally do it. It helps me out and you won’t miss a single episode. Jump on in and subscribe at your favorite podcast player.
[00:01:02.610] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, so before we get started, I wanted to give you just a little jump down memory Lane. So Hilary moved to Arizona in 2011 with her family. Obviously, and my husband had insurance through the school district, but his insurance was paid for. But to add me and the kids was just an astronomical amount and we were not making very much money. And so I decided to just get our own insurance, just individual health insurance. It was cheaper. It had a higher deductible, but I just hoped and prayed that we wouldn’t use it. And thankfully we didn’t. But fast forward, Drew leaves that job, and every year those insurance rates are just going up and up on the individual plan. And we got to the point where it was going to be like $1,400.
[00:01:43.140] – Hilary Erickson
Our mortgage is way less than that because we bought it the very low of the market in Arizona. And I was just like, this is getting insane. We had I think it was $15,000 deductible for the family, and it was like $6,500 per person. Something along those lines, maybe 7000 per person, which I knew would just ruin us. We were not rolling in the cash, and we definitely didn’t have $7,000 just sitting around if somebody needed something. But the way that insurance worked is they paid absolutely nothing up until you got hurt.
[00:02:11.270] – Hilary Erickson
And then after that, they did pay pretty much everything, but still $7,000 anyway. So a few of my blogging friends had been on Health shares, and I was starting to look into it. Initially, I signed up with Liberty Health Share and they weren’t so great about paying bills. If you look online, the reviews are not awesome. And then I switched to Christian Health Ministry, which I was on for just a couple of months and then I just felt kind of unsettled there. They have a similar model to Liberty, although they were supposedly paying better anyway. So then I switched to Zion Health Share. There’s a lot of reasons why I switched to Zion. We are going to go into that.
[00:02:43.470] – Hilary Erickson
Today’s guest is the business development manager at Zion Health, which basically just means she helps bring people into Zion health care, so she has been super helpful. I’ve contacted her in the past. I will leave a couple of episodes that I have done about health shares that are super popular in the show notes as well. I have one on why I picked a health share, and then I also have one on our DPC model, which means I have a direct primary care doctor that takes care of most of my things. And I coupled that with Zion Health Care. It is awesome. I’ll put both of those links in the show notes, but I want to introduce today’s guest Heather Eden.
[00:03:22.490] – Hilary Erickson
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[00:03:59.670] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, Heather, welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:04:02.040] – Heather Eden
Hey, Hilary, thanks for having me on today.
[00:04:04.140] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So Heather is my contact at Zion HealthShare, and I was telling everybody I get a lot of questions about health shares just because they’re different and new. Although I don’t think they’re that new. Are they that new, Heather?
[00:04:15.150] – Heather Eden
No, they’ve actually been around since the 80s, so fairly new, but they’ve been around a while and it’s working.
[00:04:21.370] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. Heather is my go to if I ever have any questions. And I was thinking how great it would be to have somebody who actually works at a health share instead of just me who’s like it works for me. Come on and talk a little bit more about how they work and why you might want to consider them. So just give us a basic idea. What is a health share?
[00:04:37.840] – Heather Eden
You guys health care is awesome. It’s actually an affordable alternative to health insurance. So what you’re going to find with a health care is a different experience. But you still meet your health care needs and we’re going to be able to save you about 40% to 50% off of a traditional plan. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a traditional plan in the past. Have you had one before?
[00:04:56.500] – Hilary Erickson
Oh, yeah. Obviously when we all had jobs at my house.
[00:05:01.710] – Heather Eden
Right. And I just hear every day that people are paying so much money a month just to have access to this traditional coverage. Do you remember what your monthly premium used to be.
[00:05:11.630] – Hilary Erickson
So we had a $15,000 deductible for our family. It was like $6,500 per person, and they didn’t pay anything until we hit that. And we were probably paying $1,400 a month. And that was in 2015. So I’m guessing by now maybe that was 2016, but I’m guessing by now we would have been well into the $2,000 range for such crappy coverage, right?
[00:05:33.120] – Heather Eden
To pay for everything out of pocket anyway, right? Yeah. It hasn’t changed too much. So you’re still right in the same neighborhood I have heard of over 2000 on maybe Cobra plans, but definitely people that’s rivaling people’s house payments, you guys. And when you talk about $15,000 out of pocket maximum for a family, it’s no wonder that bankruptcy, the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt. And that’s people with insurance. And you guys, that should never be the case. That should never happen. So that’s where a healthcare steps in and we get to help you have health care coverage or meet your health care needs at a much lower cost.
[00:06:04.990] – Heather Eden
We get to save family’s money. It’s not money. Can go back into your lives, take vacations, build up your retirement, do fun things with your family. And that’s kind of what the health care is going to provide for you.
[00:06:14.720] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So basically, the premise of a health share is that we all throw our money in a pot, right? Kind of like how people did insurance back in the day, right?
[00:06:23.090] – Heather Eden
Yeah.
[00:06:23.450] – Hilary Erickson
I don’t know how insurance started. And then if something bad happens to Sally over there, then we pay for Sally Sing. And if something bad happens to Tommy, we pay for Tommy thing. Just hoping that it kind of evens out between all of us. Right.
[00:06:36.980] – Heather Eden
Right.
[00:06:37.420] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah.
[00:06:37.690] – Heather Eden
You pay a monthly contribution, you’re still going to pay about 40% to 50% less on your monthly out of pocket. That money goes into a pool of funds. When any one of the members of that health care has an eligible medical need, then funds are withdrawn from that pool of money, and then we get to share in those medical expenses. So it’s really what you think insurance ought to be. But I don’t know about you. But when I go to use it, there’s all kinds of restrictions.
[00:06:57.170] – Heather Eden
I am tied to a network. I have to do an appeal if I want to use it. And things like that. And this is just a simple way to help each other with their health care needs. And when you ask, where does it come from? I love the story of our health shares came from health shares began in a religious organization. There was a really well loved pastor back in the 80s, and he was so well loved by his congregation, and he had a large medical incident, and he wasn’t able to take care of that on his own.
[00:07:22.400] – Heather Eden
But everyone loved him so much that they each contributed a portion and then by doing that, they were able to take care of his medical need. And that was such a good heartfelt way to show that Christian love and taking care of each other. That, as you can imagine, you might be required to be part of this organization, to be able to take advantage of that system. So they continue to use that. And that’s really the heart of our health shares came from. So for some healthcares, you might have that religious requirement.
[00:07:44.580] – Heather Eden
But as we move forward, as we break barriers as we offer new things, that religious requirement is not needed at Zion Health, we accept everyone all faith.
[00:07:53.150] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. So is there still the old? Because initially, when we got into it, we needed the Christian aspect to somehow get around Obamacare. Is that true back in the day?
[00:08:03.480] – Heather Eden
That’s true. Well, back when the mandate is no longer required for us federally, for nationally, there are some States who still require there’s about five that still require that mandate. And yes, you could use the religious requirement as a way to be excluded from that requirement. And things like that.
[00:08:24.240] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. But there is no religious requirement with Zion. I can’t even remember. Obviously, I paid really good attention when I saw that.
[00:08:30.650] – Heather Eden
No, there’s not. We do believe in a higher power, but we do not require you to be part of any particular religion. We accept everyone.
[00:08:38.370] – Hilary Erickson
Some of them definitely have strict requirements. I’m a member of the LDS States, so there are some that I cannot join.
[00:08:44.640] – Heather Eden
Yes.
[00:08:45.290] – Hilary Erickson
And because they say you have to only believe in the Bible, you have the Book of Mormon, and you have to believe in only one God. Since those things really take an effect on my health, I’m so glad that they excluded me, but it makes a lot of sense. And some of them have specific health requirements. And Zion doesn’t have that. Some of them. I don’t think you can smoke some of them. You can’t drink to an excess or something like that.
[00:09:07.710] – Heather Eden
With Zion Health, you can come to us as a tobacco user. We will have a $50 surcharge per month on that. But you can come to us. We’re just keeping it simple. We want it to be available to everyone. It’s such a good model. Of course, there are some limitations, and we’ll get to those a little bit later. But for the most part, if you’re a healthy person, relatively healthy, just looking for something. Just in case this is a great opportunity and a great alternative. It’s going to be able to meet your health care needs at a much lower cost to put that money back into your family.
[00:09:33.740] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. Like you were talking about. So as a nurse, I would see all these patients who are getting their epidural or even going in for emergency surgery, saying, do you know if either the assistant or the anesthesiologist is on my program and of course, that was top of my mind, as I was training them for surgery. But I felt so bad that these people could possibly get screwed over and did get screwed over because that anesthesiologist who they didn’t. They were unable to pick. They’re the only person on that’s, like who they have to have and the assistance chosen by your surgeon.
[00:10:06.300] – Hilary Erickson
So they have no choice in that either. And if they’re not on their health insurance, they have to pay cash or they have to pay the extra. And I just thought that was so miserable.
[00:10:14.260] – Heather Eden
Yes. And I have been a recipient of that as well. On a traditional plan, I’m having to pay out of pocket cost for somebody that I didn’t know was part of the equation, but definitely with zion health, we do not require our members to utilize any particular network we want you to go where is the most appropriate for you? So if you love your provider, if you love your primary care, please stay with them. If you love the surgical center, we want you to go there. And that’s important.
[00:10:40.060] – Heather Eden
Like you said, it’s freedom. Access to health care, freedom of choice, which you don’t get on a traditional plan.
[00:10:45.440] – Hilary Erickson
No, anymore. It’s even worse. I just see, like, there’s five OBS on my plan. I hear that a lot from students, and I’m like, well, pick one of those five because it’s definitely not worth it to haul money out of their College fund for you, right?
[00:11:01.100] – Heather Eden
Yeah. Definitely.
[00:11:02.240] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. Any other benefits to help shares? The big one for me is the freedom of being able to just pick wherever you want to go.
[00:11:08.820] – Heather Eden
Yeah. And I’m going to speak on this specific to your audience. You guys, you should look at our maternity sharing. This is fabulous. We share in new moms and growing families. We have a full guide for expecting moms, so you know exactly what to expect with us. Of course, our member needs team is going to reach out to you when you have that maternity need, they’re going to walk you through the membership and we give freedom to our moms. If you want to change your birth plan in the middle of your pregnancy, that’s totally fine by us.
[00:11:35.110] – Heather Eden
We would love to support those kinds of decisions. We also share in home births and birthing centers. And really, like, going back to that freedom of choice. We want you to have the experience that you want to have. We will share an alternative forms of treatment is kind of where I’m going with that. And that includes maternity. So we do have a little bit of a different model, a little bit different than your traditional plan, and you’re going to have a responsibility per incident, rather than little bills adding up to that deductible paying out of pocket until you reach that high amount.
[00:12:03.350] – Heather Eden
Right. And you’re just going to pay potentially, you could have your entire maternity need met for your personal responsibility of $1,000. You guys, that’s so amazing. It’s prenatal postnatal delivery, and then baby becomes a member automatically. We’re going to share in those immunizations and those well child visits for those first three years, all for that $1,000 responsibility. Wow. Doesn’t that take a load off of oh.
[00:12:25.280] – Hilary Erickson
My gosh of maternity.
[00:12:26.870] – Heather Eden
We’re not worried about a network providers we’re not worried about if our anesthesiologist or if our ultrasonographer is in network, you just get to have full access and we’re going to help you share in that.
[00:12:36.840] – Hilary Erickson
And, you know, right off the bat, it’s just going to be that $1,000 because a lot of health plans are like, well, we don’t pay for this ultrasound, but we will pay for that one. And you don’t know what’s the difference your doctor is like, well, we need a six week ultrasound and we need a 20 week ultrasound, and they’re like, oh, we don’t pay for the 20. That one has a higher deductible or whatever. So it’s just nice that you can plan that $1,000. So even the WellChild checkups are included in that.
[00:13:03.750] – Heather Eden
Well, child checks are part of that. So no extra responsibility for the member on that.
[00:13:09.020] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. So here’s the big question, because I was with Liberty, and it took forever for people to pay. So that’s one of the big reasons why I moved to Zion. Like, how quickly are one hospital submit the claim for you guys? Because do they submit it directly to you or do I submit it?
[00:13:23.530] – Heather Eden
And that’s where I wanted to go next. So you’ll meet your personal responsibility directly to the provider. So maybe you’re going to pay your I don’t know. You’re going to pay your OBGYN on his package, that $1,000, and then you submit that receipt to us. You guys, we take care of the rest. We pay the providers directly. You don’t have to wait for us, and we’re going to pay them fast. We pay our claims in about two weeks in a time frame. Give or take. When we get that information from the providers, you’re never going to go to collections.
[00:13:46.800] – Heather Eden
You’re never going to have to pay, draw from your savings and pay out of pocket this enormous amount. And then wait months for a reimbursement. We’re going to take care of you.
[00:13:54.410] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. So that’s from when the bill hits your office, right? Because sometimes that billing takes place till the kid goes to College, and then the bill comes.
[00:14:02.980] – Heather Eden
The bill comes, why do I have this bill? Give or take a provider time frame. We pay those in about a two week time frame.
[00:14:09.570] – Hilary Erickson
And that was vastly different than other health shares. Every time I see Zion brought up that’s. The main thing is that people just appreciate that. First off, the provider can bill you directly, because most often they ask us to be billed and we pay cash, and then you reimburse us and also the quick time frame that you pay the providers on the turnaround.
[00:14:28.770] – Heather Eden
And it was designed that way on purpose. We just wanted to have a simple model, easy to use and just give access to as many people as possible.
[00:14:34.970] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So the other thing for you guys to understand is that incident thing, which can be confusing when you’re coming from a deductible model. So let’s pretend like I trip on my way up the stairs after this podcast and I break my leg. So I would then pay $1,000 right to probably the Er, because you’re going to pay it to whoever gives you your bill first, basically, which is like when you’re pregnant, it’s usually the OB, and then the rest just gets sent to you guys. But if I break my leg and it’s just a $600 casting fee, that’s all on me.
[00:15:05.940] – Heather Eden
It is because you wouldn’t have met your IUA amount.
[00:15:08.980] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So that’s important to remember. So even if later, I then break the other legend up the stairs and it’s still just $600 that is still on me. It doesn’t combine for the IUA right.
[00:15:20.580] – Heather Eden
It would be. And that’s where you’re going to have some personal responsibility in this model. You’re going to have an ID card with us with Zion health. So you’re going to have something to get right to the provider instead of walking up and saying, hey, I’m a part of a health care. Can you help me out? You’re going to have an ID card, so they’re going to have everything they need to build us directly on that card. So take care of your need. And when you’re able to go ahead and get online, there’s an easy space online where you can open your needs request.
[00:15:46.190] – Heather Eden
It asks for some basic information. If you did receive a bill, you can submit a copy there. And that alerts our needs team. And this is something else where I like to really talk about the benefits of a healthcare. We’re not health insurance, we’re health care. So when you call us or when you open a need with us, we’re right there with you. We’re going to hold your hand. We’re going to help you through that. We have a fabulous member care team and a fabulous member needs team.
[00:16:06.320] – Heather Eden
They’re going to walk you through that membership every step of the way. So you’re going to meet your IUA directly to the provider, maybe the Er, probably on that one. Submit the receipt of that payment to us, and then we’re going to share in the rest of those medical claims, and we’re going to be communicating with you every step of the way. These guys are so fabulous. And this is where I love talking about that. This is health care. And just to kind of give a story and an illustration, you guys, we have a member care team member who built such a great relationship with this gentleman as he was going through his medical need and with his wife, and he did end up passing away, which was super unfortunate.
[00:16:41.820] – Heather Eden
But the wife was so appreciative of the care and of the time that she took that she invited her out to the funeral and flew her out to Connecticut. I’m here from Utah to be part of that. She wanted to tell her thank you and to meet her in person. And that’s just the kind of experience that you can kind of expect here with zion, health.
[00:16:56.860] – Hilary Erickson
Well, I will say so. One time I had a question after I signed up and it rang like, five times, and I was like, oh, I’ll just call back later, and somebody from the office called back and they were like.
[00:17:06.180] – Heather Eden
Hey, this is Zion health Share.
[00:17:07.400] – Hilary Erickson
We saw we missed a call from you, and I was like, what the heck? That’s so great because I feel like everyone I’ve ever emailed you or talk to you, and then they come back to me. They’re like, they were so helpful in discussing what I needed instead of just kind of like brushing it off or giving me a URL. They really explain things.
[00:17:26.470] – Heather Eden
Which I think is great for you guys. Yes. And that’s kind of the service that we get here. And like I said before, we’re really open to everyone and everyone is welcome to join us. It’s not a good fit for everyone. I’ll be transparent. I’ll be honest with you if you have a high cost, pre existing condition, if you have a chronic illness, we’re not going to be a good fit for you. You are going to find a better value on the marketplace or some other traditional plan.
[00:17:47.830] – Heather Eden
And so we still need insurance. And we still need those bigger companies. But for most people, you just need something just in case this can be a good fit for you. And on that note, like you said, we answer the phones right away. I think my team member said there’s under 30 seconds as our whole time, which is great. That’s fabulous. But we’re going to take as long as you need to answer those questions. You guys have been on the phone for as long as an hour, 45 minutes or half an hour.
[00:18:09.910] – Heather Eden
I want to make sure that people know what this is like. And if it’s going to meet their health care needs. And I’m more than happy to be transparent. I’m going to tell you that you’re going to pay out of pocket for some of those doctor visits. If you see the doctor a few times a year, you’re going to pay for a couple of those out of your pocket. But hopefully you’re seeing enough of a savings on your monthly contribution that it makes sense to pay for those out of pocket.
[00:18:28.050] – Heather Eden
But, yeah, just we take as long as you need. We’re going to answer your questions. We’re going to know if this is a good fit for you. So we encourage you to call in and give us a call.
[00:18:36.830] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And super helpful. So we have the DPC model, which is awesome. I’ll put the link in the show notes, but I had my doctor come on. Who is a DPC, and I sort of think of him as like my Netflix of doctors just because I pay a monthly fee to him. And then whenever I need to see him, I can just make an appointment or email him. There’s so many different forms of communication because it doesn’t matter because I’ve already paid him. He can just help me.
[00:19:02.300] – Heather Eden
However. No, I love the DPC model. You guys, I get to work with direct primary care providers as well. I love what they’re doing. Same thing. We’re doing the same thing in our space, and they’re doing the same thing in their space. They want it to take it back to between patient and provider. And that’s exactly what health care ought to be. And like you said, you pay a monthly membership fee to your Netflix, but you get access to him anytime. And that’s wonderful.
[00:19:25.010] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. The best news is with Zion. My cost for Zion is decreased by pretty much the same amount that I pay him. And so he takes care of all those little things. Like if I broke my leg, I could go into his office, he would do the X ray, and then he would decide if I really needed an orthopedic or if he could do something, all that kind of stuff instead of having to go to care or whatever. So it’s really handy to do it that way.
[00:19:48.920] – Hilary Erickson
I love that model. It’s been great.
[00:19:51.060] – Heather Eden
That’s great. And then if those costs for your broker, they end up going over your IUA, then it’s time for Zion to step in and help with those costs.
[00:19:57.410] – Hilary Erickson
Exactly. Yeah. And in general, he can probably do most of the stuff that’s under $1,000. Not everything.
[00:20:04.830] – Heather Eden
I’ve seen. Wildly different models of direct primary care. You have just your provider who just is the only guy in his office up to this network of elaborate care with Afmris. They can do ultrasounds and everything in their office. Love the DPC model. And yes, like you said, we do have a membership that’s meant to pair along with that, we are going to save and have a discounted rate for having that membership. So two different memberships with us. One is direct. You can join us by yourself, or you can join us with your direct primary care membership as well.
[00:20:33.290] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah.
[00:20:33.600] – Heather Eden
Okay.
[00:20:33.900] – Hilary Erickson
So how hard is it to sign up? Because I know when you sign up for traditional insurance, especially if you’re coming from a business owner like me. That’s probably half my day filling out all the forms and then talking about every single preexisting condition that’s ever happened in our family. What about with you guys?
[00:20:50.290] – Heather Eden
Easy. We have. It super simple online. You can do it on your own time. It takes about five minutes. Like you said, we don’t require any medical records. We don’t require those statements of faith. We know that when you hop on a traditional plan, it can be cumbersome. Like you said, any of my medical records, it’s underwritten. I need a physical maybe. And there are weeks for approval. But with Zion Health, it’s same day. If you need today to be your start date, you can choose today if you need to coordinate the ending of other benefits, maybe October 1.
[00:21:15.020] – Heather Eden
You can choose that day as well. Our member care team, like I said, it’s fabulous. They’re going to give you a welcome call. They’re going to welcome you to our community, ask you if you have any questions and really walk you through that. You’re going to receive your ID card in the email the same day. So if you need it right away, there it is. And physical cards in about a week later. Yeah.
[00:21:31.390] – Hilary Erickson
Now what about pre existing conditions? I came in. My big one is I had kidney stones when I was pregnant with my last one. So what’s up with pre existing conditions coming to a health care?
[00:21:42.280] – Heather Eden
Well, you guys, everybody has pre existing conditions, right? Like I cut my foot last week or I had cancer ten years ago. Like what is considered a pre existing condition. So we had to give it a definition for our purposes. And what we did was define it as 24 months before enrollment. So if you had anything happen in 24 months before enrollment, assign a symptom treatment seeking medication, even if it’s just a concern or a pain, that’s going to qualify it as preexisting with us. And what that means is this is where you’re going to find some of those limitations is we’re going to have a one year waiting period.
[00:22:12.400] – Heather Eden
So we’re not going to be able to share in your pre existing condition in that first year. So maybe you do have something in a large medical event happens in that first year. We wouldn’t be able to share in that. And that’s why I love to make sure I take that time. Explain this to people to make sure that it’s going to be a good fit for them. People join us with pre existing conditions. Don’t get me wrong. Maybe somebody might have a shoulder surgery that they know is upcoming.
[00:22:32.520] – Heather Eden
It’s been ongoing for quite some time. Definitely pre existing. But in that second year, we are going to share up to 25,000 in a pre existing condition. So they know the surgery is well under that cost, they’re fine to wait a year and take advantage in that second year. We’re going to share up to 50,000 in the third, and we’re going to cap off at 125 in the fourth year. And we’ll stay capped at that 125. And this is where you will never see unlimited sharing on preexisting conditions, but anything else, you come to us with a cancer diagnosis, you need to have that treatment over a year or two years.
[00:23:01.670] – Heather Eden
It doesn’t matter. You’re going to meet your personal responsibility. Maybe it’s 1000. Iua and we’re going to share in the rest of that if it turns the calendar year still part of that need. So that’s how we share in pre existing conditions. So if you do have something large, maybe like the cancer diagnosis, it becomes a million a million and a half dollar claim. It doesn’t matter to us. We’re going to share in that for you.
[00:23:20.560] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. But let’s say I had got a cancer diagnosis, and then I signed up with you, like, the next day, which probably wouldn’t be super smart.
[00:23:28.550] – Heather Eden
Please don’t do that.
[00:23:30.090] – Hilary Erickson
And I think you guys would probably advise against that when you talk with them, right? If they revealed that. But everybody because a lot of people are like, well, I should be able to sign up while I’m pregnant. And I’m like, but that’s not how insurance works. Like insurance is for, like, a future possibility. I think it’s important for people to realize that health care is just not a smart thing to do. If you have a strong preexisting condition, you’re probably going to want to look to the marketplace.
[00:23:56.430] – Heather Eden
You’re going to want to look someplace else. You’re going to find more value on those at the marketplace. Absolutely.
[00:24:02.060] – Hilary Erickson
But let’s say I don’t have, like, all of a sudden I have cancer with you guys there’s. No, I didn’t have any sign, no symptoms. Then it’s just shared up to 100% after we pay the IUA. And that’s what I love about you guys is let’s say I get cancer knocking on fake wood that I have here in my office. I got you. That’s an incident thing. So let’s say my cancer treatment goes on for five years, right? I pay that thousand. And then I’m done right.
[00:24:29.020] – Heather Eden
That’s it.
[00:24:29.530] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And then you guys just sharing everything else. So that’s a big win for big things, because you got to think insurance is for the big things. It’s not for Johnny needs the stitches at the InstaCare. That’s a $125 payment. That’s not what it’s for. It’s for the big stuff. Like everybody says to get a giant deductible on your car. Although I’m not sure that that’s the best plan either with teenagers. But it’s just the same thing with health care that you’re taking responsibility for the little things.
[00:24:54.190] – Hilary Erickson
And then when it’s the big thing, then that’s what you’re there for.
[00:24:57.110] – Heather Eden
Yes. And we’re going to help with that risk. So like I said, when we were going back to that first question when we talked about your out of pocket risk and that $15,000 out of pocket risk with zion health, we’re going to minimize that. So you’re going to have a personal responsibility per incident. Now, I did talk to a mom a couple of weeks ago, who had a house full of boys. And she said she was talking to us, asking if we were a good fit. And she said, I don’t know why.
[00:25:19.520] – Heather Eden
But last year, we had three broken bones all last year. And I said, I’ll bet with those boys. And so when I said, you’re going to pay $1,000 per incident, she kind of could hear the silence on the other end of the phone. I said, but we have a safeguard in place. So we have a safeguard in place that you would never pay for more than three large medical needs in a twelve month rolling period. So for her, her household of boys, if they have four broken bones, her responsibility ends after the third, we’re going to share in that fourth one as long as it comes to 500 or more.
[00:25:47.000] – Heather Eden
So now, if you’re comparing, you’re going to have an out of pocket risk of $3,000 for those three medical instances at $1,000 each compared to $15,000 for the family. It’s a huge difference.
[00:25:58.310] – Hilary Erickson
And is it the calendar year that that rolls over a rolling twelve months, twelve months from the initial incident? Right.
[00:26:07.220] – Heather Eden
The first broken bone.
[00:26:08.430] – Hilary Erickson
The clock starts rolling and break all the bones. Once we’ve broken three, we’re going to break them all.
[00:26:13.210] – Heather Eden
Set up a skateboard ramp in the backyard. Let’s go.
[00:26:17.230] – Hilary Erickson
All right. So if people have questions and I get people emailing me, I probably get one or two emails a week just about Zion, like, if I love it, and I have to say, Guys, let me be really transparent here. Hey, I never go to the doctor because I’m a nurse and I don’t like seeing doctors. We have that DPC. So I just saw him last week. He ordered labs. I’m good for another five years, and then we just haven’t had knocking on wood again. We just haven’t had too much going on, thankfully.
[00:26:44.350] – Hilary Erickson
So we don’t use I don’t think we’ve ever submitted a bill or anything to Zion, which is what they love. And I love it too, because I would much rather not have to deal with medical stuff. So we haven’t used it. But I do know that every time I call or talk to them, they are super helpful. And anyone I keep an eye on reviews. I have, like, a couple of Facebook groups where I’m in, and I’ve never heard anybody say anything bad about you guys.
[00:27:07.780] – Hilary Erickson
Other than that, you just have to be really careful about the pre existing conditions and the model of the per incident. You just need to understand those things going in.
[00:27:16.220] – Heather Eden
Yeah, absolutely. Check us out on Google. Check us out. There’s a website called Help Sharing Reviews where you get to kind of compare side by side the different health shares. And definitely those Facebook groups are great. I watch those as well. It’s super fun to see people are very transparent. Hey, how was your experience here. Hey, what if I have this medical need? How is it going to be taken care of by here, here and here. And people are super open, so yeah, look us up, check us out, see what you think.
[00:27:40.820] – Heather Eden
Give us a call. We’d be happy to talk to you and see if this is a good fit. Yeah, definitely.
[00:27:45.300] – Hilary Erickson
And your end of the thing is to just be as honest as you can while you’re talking to them. Don’t try and hide the things or just be very transparent about what you are and what your needs are. And I think you guys are going to help them decide if it’s a good fit for them or not, because I don’t think you guys want people who were diagnosed with cancer yesterday coming to you either.
[00:28:04.750] – Heather Eden
Probably not good for the community. More to go around is what we would like to have and to be able to help people feel good about their health care needs being met.
[00:28:12.330] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So if people have questions, I would say call in. You can email them too if you’re not like a talker. I know a lot of people are like, I don’t really want to talk, and I’m like, okay, then just email them. And you guys have been helpful that way as well.
[00:28:22.060] – Heather Eden
Yeah. We have a chat feature, too on the website. So you’re going to have a link in the show notes. Did you say yeah, definitely. And probably you have a link on their website too.
[00:28:30.050] – Hilary Erickson
Yes.
[00:28:30.590] – Heather Eden
So when you go to our website down in the bottom corner, there’s a little chat feature and we answer those as quickly as possible as well.
[00:28:36.700] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And I will say of all the Help shares, I mean, I’ve only been on three. Let’s not pretend like I’ve done them all. But you guys have been the most responsive about communication and all those kinds of different things. And I honestly think the IUA model makes it so that you guys can still do all the things that are necessary because you’re not picking up all these little $125 Johnny got stitches bills because it’s a time suck for you guys as well as a money suck it is.
[00:29:01.720] – Heather Eden
And it was built that way on purpose, to be simple, to be easy to use the cover or share in the things that are going to be the most important. And like you said, you haven’t had to use it. Knock on that fake one. I’ve got you over here too. But when you do, you know you’re going to be taken care of.
[00:29:14.570] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So if you guys decide to sign up for Zion, I love it when you guys say that you heard about it from me. I am a Zion partner, although I totally use them myself, and I’m happy to answer any questions that you guys have. There will be an Instagram post over on my Instagram channel. If you guys want to ask questions on there. I’m happy to answer, like what our experience has been as well there. So thanks for coming on, Heather.
[00:29:34.180] – Heather Eden
You are so welcome. Thank you for having me today. It has been so much fun and a true pleasure. I love sharing this.
[00:29:39.810] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, it’s a great model. You just have to understand what it is going in, just like you do with traditional insurance, and it’s a lot less confusing, by the way.
[00:29:48.790] – Heather Eden
Definitely. Well, we love you, Hillary. You’ve been a great partner of us. I know when I see you come up when you share your podcast with me like it’s. Hilary. Oh, my gosh. Yes.
[00:29:58.530] – Hilary Erickson
Thanks for coming on.
[00:29:59.510] – Heather Eden
You’re welcome.
[00:30:00.420] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, guys, I hope you guys found that episode helpful. I think help shares can be scary. Like, really scary. I mean, I knew that there were nights that I built out $15,000, which is insane, but I’m obviously worth it at the hospital, so I knew that I needed someone to back us up in case there was an emergency. But I also knew that we are in a spot where we could handle the small things, because really, the small things we should be handling on our own. And then insurance should just be around for the big things.
[00:30:28.130] – Hilary Erickson
And that’s really how I see Zion ads and that they’re really going to be there and pay quickly, which is what I didn’t find in some of the other health shares. So if you guys have any questions, you can ask me in the post on Pulling Curls about this, you can find us on Instagram. I have an Instagram post that always goes up the morning after the podcast, but that help shares in a nutshell for you.
[00:30:46.970] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. Next week’s episode is one you won’t want to miss. It is all the breastfeeding myths that you’ve heard and that I totally bought into and then failed at. So don’t miss next week’s episode.
[00:30:57.170] – Hilary Erickson
Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears, and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly, and until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.
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