8 Alternative Ideas For Healthcare Coverage Outside of The Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare)

It is the last day of 2013, that means that deadlines for the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) have come and gone. It also means that many, many Americans have opted out of the Affordable Healthcare Act and are looking to pay a penalty for doing so. Well, if you (or someone you know) find yourself in this circumstance, there are options that you can take advantage of that will give you both an affordable coverage for healthcare and opt out of the Affordable Healthcare Act without a penalty in many of the 8 ideas.

On the Breitbart site, we spotted an article on “8 Ways to Opt Out of Obamacare.”  

1. Join a healthcare sharing ministry.
2. Purchase a short-term health insurance policy.
3. Buy alternative insurance plans.

4. Visit cash-only doctors and retail health clinics for primary care. We have one close to us that charges a fee of $30 per month for unlimited visits – not a bad option!

5. Sign up for a telemedicine service.
6. Use generic prescription drugs whenever possible, and compare prices between pharmacies. We would even go one step further and suggest taking advantage of the coupon specials and playing the “switching” game to get that $30 off or in free store credit, etc. that you see at most any pharmacy.
7. For surgery, go to a facility that offers up-front “package” prices for self-pay patients.
8. When a hospital visit becomes necessary, work with a medical bill negotiation service.  We did an article a couple of years ago about savings 25-30% by negotiating your medical bills.  As a tip, medical providers are more willing to negotiate with cash patients than insured patients.  See the article HERE for more details on negotiating on your medical bills to save 25-30%. 

One of the 8 ways listed is a wonderful alternative and one that we have done ourselves;  Samaritan Ministries.  We are going to post more details soon about this particular idea as we have personal experience with it and highly recommend this option for those that meet the criteria soon.

Also, if you happen to sign-up for Samaritan Ministries health care sharing plan, please tell them at The Thrifty Couple – Alex and Cassie – referred you.  Anyone that refers someone else gets statement credits.  We will be donating our referral credits to a family that is in the ministry and whose husband/father is the pastor of a small mission work in Colorado.  We would like to bless them with free coverage for as long as possible. So, if you don’t have someone to name that referred you, please consider this 🙂 Don’t forget to refer your friends instead if you already know someone using them!

We thought we would point you to this article for the details on those 8 ways!  See the full article on the Breitbart site HERE for “8 Ways to Opt Out of Obamacare” including the details of the above 8 ways listed!

By the way….. as a side note, you may or may not have noticed the statement on the sidebar of our site that says “A portion of the proceeds from our site go to support The Morning Center.”  We fully believe in the mission of The Morning Center.  There are actually ministries and private organizations that have a goal of providing free medical care for those that need it most, outside of the government doing it while sharing the love of Christ with each one to which they minister.  This is one such ministry.

Currently they provide free mobile medical care to pregnant women and their babies in some inner cities.  Their goal is to also build free brick and mortar maternity hospitals and of course have the goal of having as many of these as possible across the country to provide first class prenatal care nationwide.  We have been supporting The Morning Center with a portion of the money we make on our site for a few years now.  We mention this here because they are a sister ministry to the Healthcare Sharing Ministry called Samaritan Ministries mentioned above.

Both organizations are doing a beautiful work to provide very affordable healthcare coverage for individuals and families and then free maternity, pre-natal and post-natal care for mom’s and their babies.  It’s so sweet and so awesome! We love both of these!

Disclaimer: We do not claim to be lawyers or health care professionals (nor have we read the mountain of paper refered to as the Obamacare law :)) – we are rather a couple trying to provide you the best content possible.  Please always consult with a professional prior to implementing any idea listed here to confirm any ramifications from your choice.