Solidarity HealthShare President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins Bob Sansevere of The BS Show to discuss how a personal tragedy he experienced with the loss of his wife to an aggressive form of cancer led to the creation of a Catholic healthshare and a new mission in life.

Bob Sansevere (00:00):

We are joined by Christopher Faddis, Co-founder and president of the nonprofit Healthcare Sharing Ministry Solidarity HealthShare, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Chris, you know I was thinking about this and I talked to you briefly off the air about it, and you were one of three co-founders of Solidarity HealthShare, and you told me, and I want the story, but you were not involved in the medical field, or you weren’t involved in health insurance either, right. But what did prompt it and how did you get together with your other co-founders, Brad Hahn and Dr. John Oertle?

Chris Faddis (00:39):

Yeah, I mean, Bob, this was going back 12 years ago now. My first wife ultimately passed away from cancer, but she had been going through, she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in 2011, and we went through the nightmare of the healthcare system and ultimately was just constantly dealing with noses from insurance and fighting that and finding the right care, finding her cancer was so advanced when they found it. She was only 31, but she had so many tumors that they essentially had already ruled out a couple different chemotherapies, and the first round of chemo completely failed. Everything was continuing to grow, so we had to find alternatives and advanced therapies that insurance wouldn’t pay for and all of that. We ended up finding really great doctors that we could go to here in Arizona, which is where I was from, and we moved back here.

(01:33):

We raised money for her care and actually saw the Christian community come together and share her medical needs. And that was the light bulb moment of, wait, this is so much better than insurance. And then several months later, as she was still going through her cancer treatment, beginning of 2012 was when the Affordable Care Act mandates came out from HHS, which started to mandate things that Christians and a lot of folks like myself and you found objectionable and didn’t want to pay for in our insurance. And so Dr. Oertle and I were good friends and we would spend a lot of time talking about how do we solve it, how do we solve it? And one of the big things we kept saying was we wanted to solve the ethics, but we also wanted to solve the access to care to alternative and advanced therapies and patient directed care.

(02:19):

And so over time, it just kind of came together and we’re Catholics and we both had prayed this movie end of the Holy Spirit for other things. And we came together at the end of that, and we felt very much like, this is what God wanted us to do. And so we started working on it in 2012, and my wife passed away later that summer, but not before she said I’m supposed to do, and really challenged me and encouraged me to do it, and she was supportive of it. And we spent the next few years trying to make sure we could do it right and make sure we had the right model and exemption and all of that. So we launched in 2016 and man, we’ve learned that as you know, Bob, we’ve learned so much more about the problems in healthcare, not just the ethics of forcing unethical procedures on people, but it’s the ethics of costs. It’s the fact that we’re essentially raping the middle class and the poor really with the egregious overpricing of healthcare and all of that. So we’re fighting on so many fronts more than we thought we would when we started this.

Bob Sansevere (03:23):

Well, Chris, I don’t recall if it was you or Brad Hahn who had told me about a box of Kleenex, 200 bucks at a hospital.

Chris Faddis (03:29):

Yeah. Yeah. It is. The crazy amounts stay assigned to such minuscule things. It’s just, it’s hard to believe, but that’s all true. And people don’t believe it. The reality is it’s all true now. They bundle a lot of it. They’ll do a lot of things where they bundle things together, so you can’t tell, but if you break apart those charges, you can see it. And that’s a lot of the work we have to do. And what’s awesome too, having lost a wife to cancer, I’m now remarried and we had two kids. We have three more, one on the way. Having lost a wife to cancer one of the amazing thing is, is that when we have a member who has cancer, we now can send them to the right places. And if their therapy can’t be solved by traditional care, they have access to all kinds of advanced and alternative therapies through Solidarity’s membership. And even some of the best cancer centers in the country, we have white glove service with them. So what’s been amazing is being able to create a model where we can serve families like mine

(04:28):

In a way that is good for them. It’s what they want. It helps them. So hopefully they’re cured, but even if they’re not, that they’re getting the care that they desire and the way they desire it for those end days, because that’s really an important thing. And that’s been amazing. That’s been an amazing gift. I remember one of the hospitals she wants to, was used to be called Cancer Treatable Centers of America. Now it’s City of Hope. And I remember going, Dr. Oertle and I were at the hospital here in Arizona when we signed a new agreement with them for our members about three or four years ago. And I walked by the radiation clinic where one of the things they do in cancer care is they ring a bell after deemed to be therapeutically clear or whatever. And we walked by that bell, and I remembered Angela sitting across the hallway in the MRI clinic seeing the bell and saying, I guess I’m never going to get to ring the bell.

Bob Sansevere (05:18):

Oh my.

Chris Faddis (05:19):

And that was a tearful moment. But at the same time, what I love about that was our members have a chance at ringing the bell because Angela inspired this mission. And that’s one of the great gifts we have of doing this work.

Bob Sansevere (05:32):

It’s interesting, colonoscopies. I mean, I had a couple of friends who were older than me and they had polyps. So I was in my mid forties when I had my first one, and I’ve had, I was told at the time I had the colon of a 21-year-old, which was, I guess that’s good to hear. I’d rather have somebody say, you look like you’re only 21, but I’ll take that.

Chris Faddis (05:54):

 It’d be nice to say you had the abs of a 21-year-old.

Bob Sansevere (05:56):

Yes, exactly.

Chris Faddis (05:57):

I’ll take the colon. I’ll take a 21-year-old colon.

Bob Sansevere (05:59):

But the point I want to make is how, I mean, my wife is, she’s getting her first one and she is scheduled, which is good, but you need to get it done. And my doctor finally just said schedule it because she’s been putting it off. But 31, I mean, did she, no one goes for a colonoscopy at 31? No. She must’ve been having issues, right?

Chris Faddis (06:20):

No, she wasn’t really. I mean, she always had a little bit of dietary issues, stomach issues, but nothing to the point that you would think there was no bleeding. There was no –

Bob Sansevere (06:28):

What led her to get it at 31, though, to find out.

Chris Faddis (06:31):

Well, she didn’t. She actually had severe constipation for nine or 10 days.

Bob Sansevere (06:35):

Oh boy.

Chris Faddis (06:35):

And after they tried all the normal stuff, nothing was working. They finally, even when we went to the ER before they diagnosed her, they were going to send her home with laxatives, and she kept saying, you don’t understand. I’ve been eating for nine days and nothing’s happening. So they finally did the imaging and that’s when they found it. But yeah, what’s crazy is at the time when she was diagnosed, they were talking about how this is very rare at this age and all of that. It’s now come about that more and more young people are, so there are other informed screening. They still don’t recommend colonoscopies at a young age.

Bob Sansevere (07:12):

I would think that they haven’t, but I mean-

Chris Faddis (07:14):

They have lowered it. I think they lowered the age just in the last year or two. They’ve lowered the age down to 45 from 50,

(07:20):

Which is good. So I think that’s one of the things, Bob, I mean, one of the reasons why we do wellness and preventative sharing, which most healthcare sharing ministries before we started didn’t do that. They didn’t share into mammograms and colonoscopies and lab tests and wellness visits. And we felt like that was really important because announced the prevention is worth the pound of cure, right? The idea that we stay on top of it, we’re monitoring. We know what’s going on and we can’t catch things much earlier. And that’s one of the things. Now, sometimes things we can’t catch for various reasons, but that’s an important piece.

Bob Sansevere (07:57):

Well, I mean it is. And you Solidarity HealthShare at solidarityhealthshare.org get more information. You do absolutely do a lot with it. Now, we used a lot more. I mean, I’m glad I asked that question because the story is important for people to hear, and maybe it’s a reminder to get things checked. Don’t wait on ’em, obviously. But Harris and Trump, what will we see, and we got to make this relatively quick, but is one better than the other for healthcare, traditional healthcare and for Solidarity HealthShare and other ministries like yours?

Chris Faddis (08:35):

I definitely think what we’ll see is under the Harris administration, we’ll see a furthering of the Obamacare mandates. They’ve already started mandating more procedures under section 1557 of the Obamacare Act. There’s going to be more of that. I think unfortunately what we’re seeing that both parties are well supported by the insurance cabal and the hospital.

(09:02):

But what’s become clear is that I think from a standpoint of free market principles and giving people choice, that I think typically Republicans have been more favorable to that. So I think under the Biden administration, you’re going to see a lot more of that federal subsidy, more growth of the programs, maybe adding more programs. And I think under Trump, you’re going to see a lot more opening the door to more solutions to price transparency. That’s been a big one. It’s getting bipartisan support now, but it’s definitely been led by Republicans. So I think you’re going to see a lot more of that. And honestly, I think this whole idea of access to care and the freedom of healthcare. One thing I’m very interested to see what happens with Trump really giving free reign to Bobby Kennedy Jr. On healthcare, is there’s going to be a big shakeup of healthcare under that administration. So that’s going to be interesting to see what that’s like. I still don’t know exactly what their plan is, but I think you’re going to see a lot more accountability for the FDA and the CDC needed. I don’t care what party you’re in, that is something we need. We should know what our drugs are doing to us.

Bob Sansevere (10:09):

Exactly.

Chris Faddis (10:09):

We need to stop hiding results and all these things, and this whole game of pharmaceutical is no problem. So that’s going to be one of the big changes that you’ll see under that administration.

Bob Sansevere (10:19):

Alright, well, Chris, it always greatly appreciated. Solidarity HealthShare solidarityhealthshare.org. Check it out if you’re looking for a great alternative true for traditional healthcare. Chris, of course, is President and Co-founder of Solidarity HealthShare. Take a quick break. The BS Show be right back.

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Solidarity HealthShare is a non-profit healthcare sharing ministry rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Established in 2016, we operate on the Catholic principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, in accordance with the Church’s commitment to promoting life-affirming, faith-based healthcare.

We strive to provide an ethical, community-driven alternative to traditional health insurance. Through direct Member-to-Member sharing, Members are able to access quality healthcare services while preserving their family’s financial, physical, and spiritual health, all at once. Members never need to worry about their healthcare dollars funding immoral medical procedures. We promote a holistic approach to healthcare, emphasizing the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

At the heart of our ministry’s mission to restore and rebuild an authentically faith-based healthcare culture in America is the recognition that every single person has inherent human dignity. We seek to promote healthcare that honors the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.

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