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Personal Healthcare Reform Is Possible

The fatal flaws I saw in the American healthcare system stirred in me a desire to find a better way.
Ernest Sass, 52, (C) listens as Neil Amar, M.D., (L) and Girish Bobby Kapur, M.D. discuss his medical condition in a room used to see patients who don't require treatment for trauma inside the emergency room at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, Texas, July 27, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES SOCIETY HEALTH POLITICS)
Ernest Sass, 52, (C) listens as Neil Amar, M.D., (L) and Girish Bobby Kapur, M.D. discuss his medical condition in a room used to see patients who don't require treatment for trauma inside the emergency room at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, Texas, July 27, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES SOCIETY HEALTH POLITICS) | (Photo: Reuters/ Jessica Rinaldi)

If you are reading this, I think I can safely assume that you are only too aware that our nation's healthcare system is in crisis, specifically with regard to both access and cost. For the majority of my professional life, I have worked in and around the field of healthcare administration. Even 30 years ago, the fatal flaws I saw in the American healthcare system stirred in me a desire to find a better way. In the intervening years since then, many shifts and changes have occurred, particularly with the Affordable Care Act, but my convictions about the causes of our healthcare crisis - and the need for a real solution - have not wavered. The crisis has not gone away, and, in fact, for many Americans, it has gotten worse.

Over time, it has become clear that the root cause of our healthcare problem in America is two-fold. First, we largely exist within a third-party pay system where the end customer never sees the bill nor even knows the cost of their care, and where a faceless, nameless bureaucracy pays the bill, whether that's a government payer, insurance company or an employer. Someone else is paying the bill. It's not our money, so we have no skin in the game, and in truth, we're not really motivated to care about the costs, because it's someone else's money.

Secondly, every day we encounter a system that is tilted toward treating illness and sickness, not health. You and I are caught up in a system that tends toward sick-care, not healthcare. As things currently stand, the third-party payer system rewards healthcare providers for treating your illness, not for partnering with you to increase your overall health.

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This kind of system is unsustainable and it must change. This change begins with our recognition that, no matter the convictions or good intentions of legislators, the government is incapable of delivering the healthcare solution our nation so desperately needs. The power to make lasting change rests instead in the hands of individual consumers.

There is hope for the future of healthcare in America. There is a bottom-up, individualized healthcare model that is bringing new promise in healthcare as more and more Americans learn about it. It's a complete paradigm shift away from the third-party payer system to a community that practices mutual aid and mutual assistance. It's based on the time-tested tradition of neighbor helping neighbor, member helping member.

This movement advocates for a method of paying for healthcare costs in a community of like-minded individuals and families where your religious and ethical values are respected, and where your efforts to protect your health are appreciated and rewarded.

So, I'm here with good news. I want to announce that healthcare freedom is alive and well! The members of healthcare sharing ministries like the one I lead, Liberty HealthShare, have engaged in their own personal healthcare reform. In the era of the Affordable Care Act, you have the freedom right now to join together with others of like-minded faith and values, to share in your medical expenses, and to be exempt from both the fines and the mandates of the Affordable Care Act. Healthcare sharing existed before the Affordable Care Act and will remain for years to come. We've already accomplished our own personal healthcare reform, and we want you to know it's available to you right now!

That's how we exercise our freedom in healthcare. Healthcare sharing offers the rare opportunity to exercise not only your freedom with regard to healthcare but also your right to religious and economic expression as you see fit. If that resonates with you, please seek out information about the work our ministry is doing. Exercise your right to direct and control the care of your health as God gives you the wisdom to do so.

It's easy to lay blame at the feet of one industry or entity and create enemies out of those who may actually work diligently to serve customers, constituents or clients. The truth is, the fault lies not with people or institutions, but with the unmanageable, unsustainable systems that determine how we pay for healthcare. Top-down solutions are no solutions at all. Rather, lasting effect will come from the efforts of those individuals who desire to manage, direct, and steward their own healthcare. The good news is, those individuals can do exactly that today.

Dale Bellis was part of the reorganization and creation of Liberty HealthShare and is now the ministry's Executive Director. Bellis helped found The National Coalition of Healthcare Sharing Ministries, Inc. in 2015 as a professional association that assists healthcare sharing ministries with industry best practices, administrative technology and public advocacy.

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