Solidarity HealthShare President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis discusses healthcare costs and what changes need to be made in a recent interview with Molly Smith on From the Median.

Announcer (00:00):

The following program is sponsored by Cleveland right to Life and is responsible for its content. Welcome to From the Median, a daily report from the frontline of the pro-life movement, discussing two worldviews that are driving our culture in opposite directions. From the Median asks, which side of the road are you on? What direction do you want our culture to go? Tune in as we plan the route that takes us back to the Culture of life. And now your host Molly Smith.

Molly Smith (00:29):

Good evening and welcome to From the Median where we are concerned with the middle ground, not just to understand both sides of an argument, but also to awaken the conscience of those who are neutral or indifferent to this, the greatest civil rights movement of all times the Pro-Life Movement. Listeners, as always, thank you so much for joining us. I am thrilled to have on the line with me right now a returning guest, somebody who is so supportive of what we do and I am so glad that he is because I love what their company does. Of course, I’m talking about Solidarity Health Share. They are just one of the top line companies that help us to really understand what is happening with healthcare, with the whole system of healthcare, the formal system, and then also an alternate system that of course, Solidarity HealthShare is part of Chris Faddis is the president and co-founder of the Organization of Solidarity HealthShare.

(01:27):

He is joining us right now to talk about something that’s extremely important as 2025 unfolds ahead of us and you probably will. I try to play the interview once or twice before he comes back on the program again with us. So you are going to hear this again, so if you miss it once, don’t worry about it. Go to your podcast, you can download it off there. You can go to our website, but I will play this again for the general public because I think it is so important right now that we understand what’s happening with healthcare. First of all, let me just say welcome to the program again, Chris, it’s so great to have you back.

Chris Faddis (02:04):

Thanks for having me, Molly. God bless you and good to talk to you again.

Molly Smith (02:08):

The healthcare costs are just absolutely, and let me just put this into perspective. I have a young family that I know who are doing pretty well. They’re trying as best they can to keep, have got four children doing wonderful job, but the healthcare costs with them are unbelievable. This is what’s happening over and over and over again in the country. Chris, what are we going to do? What is Solidarity HealthShare doing about this or suggesting?

Chris Faddis (02:38):

Yeah, I mean obviously the price has just continued to increase and it’s very clear now that the Affordable Care Act did not bring about affordable care for anyone. In fact, it’s unaffordable. It’s unaffordable, yeah. And it’s gotten to the point now where the only way to afford it is if you qualify for a subsidy through the federal government. And that’s also a problem because that means taxpayers are paying that bill. So there’s a lot of issues for us. The biggest thing again, is taking back control of our healthcare for our members, helping them take back control, I guess we should say, of their own healthcare and then reestablishing that patient doctor relationship, getting rid of the many middlemen between us and our doctors, and then really looking at price transparency. What does it cost to make sure that we get the care we need, make sure doctors are paid a decent or good wage and that the care is paid for, but also that families can afford it and that is possible.

(03:43):

Molly, obviously it’s very possible and we’ve been doing it for several years now. We’ve had great success and what we’re finding is that the real cost of care, the cost of care that doctors are willing to accept and they can pay their bills off of is about a third of what we see out there as what the bill charges of what people are actually trying to charge and time. And again, we see doctors are willing to take the amount of money that we say, Hey, this is the fair and just price and this is what we think the members should pay. And taking that back, and obviously what we do in solidarity is we have a community that comes together and we share those medical costs. So while I’ve taken back control of my healthcare for my family, my bills are shared among the other members of the community who have also taken back control of healthcare for their family and we’re sharing each other’s burdens.

(04:37):

And so you take that, you got transparency, you have control of your healthcare. That control also gives you control of the ethics of your care, Molly, which is very important obviously for your listeners and for people around in our circles. And then on top of that, you’re doing it in a Christian community where you’re caring for each other, you’re praying for each other and you’re living the gospel. And I think that’s the solution. I think we’ve got to bring this back to the simplest form and give people that option. People are opting out every day of their health insurance and they’re choosing this option and they’re finding it’s a much better way.

Molly Smith (05:13):

And I absolutely agree with you, and I think that’s the issue that we are seeing. My husband and I are obviously retirees and we, we’ve got a different issue that we deal with, but one of the things that we have discovered because trying to search for the same type of idea and one of the things that we have seen is this ability to join with other people so that we can get the reduced rate because medical, whoever it may be, the medical profession charges you a set rate, which is astronomical if you not within some sort of a system. That’s what I love about Solidarity HealthShare because I think, well, I know what you do is you look at that and you go, okay, we’re going to go out there and we’re going to negotiate so that we get the best possible deal for our patients, for our clients. Am I reading that right?

Chris Faddis (06:19):

Yeah, that’s right. I mean, we first look at the cost in general. I mean, we have multiple ways to do it, but we’ll negotiate. We’ll look at the data ourselves and say, Hey, this, visit this service. This is the fair and just price. And we say this is what’s going to be paid. And then we send that payment out on behalf of the member and typically the providers accept it. But our negotiations often we find once doctors and hospitals realize like, oh, we’ve got somebody who’s responsible. They understand the cost. They’re almost always willing to deal with us and to do that. And I think what we try to get to with these providers, you get to that point where we don’t have to do that every time. We say, just bill us this amount, let’s just set that right now and let’s just build that all the time and then we never have to go back and forth. And it’s a much easier process. Absolutely. And it changes the game. Again, we do want to be sure these doctors are rewarded for their work. You go to medical school, you do your residency, you deserve to be paid for your wages, but we also think our members and patients, your patients should be able to afford the care that they’re being given and it’s possible. It is possible to have care that is affordable while also making sure that doctors and their staffs are paid accordingly to their services.

Molly Smith (07:40):

One of the things, talk to us a little bit about Chris, about hospital transparency, the price transparencies. There was a patient’s rights advocate released a study on the number of hospitals who are complying with federal price transparency. What did it find?

Chris Faddis (08:02):

Yeah, so if you remember back in 2020, at the end of 2020, we got, Congress passed a bipartisan bill called the No Surprises Act, which required hospitals to provide basically comprehensive machine readable files with all their offered items and services and consumer friendly lists of services that would let patients compare prices across hospitals. And there were some other rules as well, and what’s been found is first of all, it took a long time to get those hospitals to comply. They had to start complying in 2021 and the initial push just didn’t happen, and then they finally started to come on board and this patient rights advocate group back when they looked at this in February, and then they looked again at the end of this year and the number of hospitals complying with those rules fallen since 2021, just 21% of 2000 hospitals reviewed were in full compliance with requirement at the end of this year. And that’s a sad thing because what it’s saying is they’ve realized they don’t have to comply because ultimately HHS has not been enforcing this law. They’ve not been really doing much to fight back and to punish these hospitals, which they did have some measures they could have done.

(09:25):

They had 34% compliance back in February, so we dropped from 34% down to 21%, and so that means 450 out of those 202,000 hospitals, four 50 of them that we’re following are no longer. So this is not a good sign. The Health and Human Services Inspector General noted in November that 46% of hospitals nationwide we’re not in compliance with the rules much higher than the original report. And so that’s a big issue and I think it’s something that the new administration HHS needs to take up. I think Congress should take this up and look at how they can expand on the No Surprises Act. I do think it was a net positive for consumers. It definitely has helped us in our negotiations with the bad actors out there, the hospitals that were not serving the patients. Right. It’s been a lot easier for us to get them to play ball, so to speak, given the No Surprises Act, but they’re still not complying on this open level, and I think it’s an important thing that the government needs to take a stand here. Price transparency is the way for them to help us get through this time and get affordable healthcare.

Molly Smith (10:40):

Absolutely, and you rightly point out in some of the messaging that you’ve been putting out, and I a hundred percent agree with you, that Americans, the people, we want to know what we’re paying for. We want to see it. We want to have a transparent view of everything that’s going on. Why did I get charged that without having to take out a PhD in analysis type of thing before you even understand why did you get, how much did that pill cost you and how much did that procedure cost? We need to be able to see it easily, and that’s part of the problem that I see is happening here. Absolutely.

Chris Faddis (11:20):

Yeah, it, it’s a big concern, and again, I think the fact that they’re just not complying is showing us that what’s there now is not working, and I think you got to call their bluff. I think in a way they’ve sort of called the government’s bluff and said, well, you’re not really paying attention, so we’re going to just ignore this thing and what seems to be the way these days, right. Just ignore government regulation.

Molly Smith (11:41):

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we can say thank you to God for the change in administration and we just have to pray for the new administration coming in. And I say this all the time, please pray for them because it’s going to be a mammoth task, but with God, if we’ve got God helping us, everything’s possible, so we can absolutely do this. Chris, it looks as if in 2025 seniors are going to be paying more for Medicare too. What’s this about?

Chris Faddis (12:13):

Yeah, obviously the Medicare rate has gone up a couple of times in the last couple of years. Of course, the social security payment went up a little bit to help with that, but now what we’re seeing is that the deductibles if for Part B are going to rise $257 in 2025 from two 40, which again, it’s obviously every dollar counts when you’re on social security, and so we’re seeing that continue. This of course, has to do Part B covers doctors outpatient care, preventative services, vaccines and medical equipment and all of that, so that deductible is going up. I think that this is just another sign that even in a system of care like Medicare, that’s kind of the pricing controlled by the government, we’re still seeing, and at the end of the day, it’s affecting the consumer and we’re still not bringing these things under control. So definitely something that we’re going to need to address, and I’m sure obviously $17 isn’t going to totally break the bank for some, but if that happens again and again and again, it really starts to encroach on people’s income.

Molly Smith (13:25):

I look at that and when I see that little small increase, little small increase, I always think of the postage stamp. I mean, when I first came into this country back in 1990, I think a stamp was 29 cents or something or even less than that, and you’ve seen how it’s just keeps creeping. In fact, it was much less than, I think it was about 15 cents or something,

Chris Faddis (13:51):

And

Molly Smith (13:51):

Now

Chris Faddis (13:51):

I think I heard we’re going to go to 65 cents or something soon or

Molly Smith (13:56):

Yep.

Chris Faddis (13:56):

Yeah.

Molly Smith (13:56):

Yep.

(13:57):

And you look at, I mean, how much money and yet has the system become more efficient? No, absolutely not. No. When there’s just an automatic blanket increase in things that like this, oh, we have to do this, we have to do this. No, let’s first of all show us why and show us what. So I think I’m a hundred percent behind Solidarity HealthShare because I think what you do is you are able to drill down and take note of where the problems are and then to alert your clients, the people that are with you. So I think it’s a huge, huge thing. And folks go onto the Solidarity HealthShare website. It’s amazing. It’s an absolutely amazing website and also consider becoming a member if you’re not already a member because as Chris said, such a beautiful system where you share this is truly what is the first commandment, love God, have no other gods. We secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. This to me, Solidarity HealthShare is that the epitome of this second of the second commandment of the God gave us that Jesus gave us loving each other in a way that you share the problems that you have when you have a health problem. So I’m a hundred percent behind them. I think you do an amazing job. So thank you so much for being there and for alerting us to these things, Chris.

Chris Faddis (15:25):

Well, thanks for having me, Molly, and thanks always for helping us share our message. Obviously, we want to serve more and more of the folks that are in your listenership. Absolutely. These are the kind of people that we want to be about, and I think it’s such an important thing that we prove and we show what this Christian values can get you and the benefits there, and also we protect our families from some of these crazy encroachments of leftist healthcare.

Molly Smith (15:53):

Absolutely. One of the things that I’m sure you are going to be doing and that it’s going to be talking to the Trump administration about some of the issues that you are seeing. I know that you, you’ve asked the Trump administration to assess the current healthcare system and find out what are the things that are no longer needed and start doing that type of a thing.

Chris Faddis (16:16):

Yeah. Recently we did an open letter to the incoming administration, and so far we’ve been very happy with who they’ve been putting in place, especially on the healthcare side of HHS, and we’re hopeful for lots of things, but one of the things, there’s obviously a few things we want to see for healthcare sharing, but in general, I mean, I think this whole idea of make America healthy again, I think there’s a lot of opportunity here, and one of the things we shared with the administration and I had the chance to meet Bobby Kennedy not long before the election and share some of this as well, is, look, make America healthy again is what we do. First of all, in order to do it, you need to have Catholic healthcare values you need, which is a moral imperative to protect life at all costs and that healthcare needs to always be life-affirming.

(17:10):

And if we are always life affirming, we’re never mutilating the body. We’re never manipulating the body to do something that wasn’t designed to do by God. We need to continue to advance healthcare sharing ministries and make sure that we pave the way through whatever regulation or federal law to protect and encourage healthcare sharing. We need to focus on personalized medicine. As you know, Molly, we’ve talked about before, is this idea of patient directed care, personalized medicine. If you and I had our doctors to work with during Covid, most of us would not have gotten sick, and a lot less of our friends and family would’ve died or been severely injured by COVID. Personalized medicine is an important thing where we can tailor care to the individual.

(17:54):

We’re encouraging some changes at FDA in standard of care reform, breaking the chains on innovation. There’s lots of things that we think could happen, and then of course, I think this whole focus on addressing the diet crisis, American diet crisis is a big deal and really helping advance that as much as we can. Obviously, I’m not a big fan of forcing people to eat certain things or anything like that, but I think this idea of promoting and encouraging better food security, better food knowledge, getting all the preservatives out of our food that are harming our bodies, I think is an important thing. So we’re excited to see what comes of that. I do think many friends have worked closely to get commitments from RFK Jr that he’s going to protect life through HHS, and I think that will happen. (I think so too), but like you said, let’s keep praying for that. Let’s keep encouraging that and praying for that, and I think they’re listening.

Molly Smith (18:53):

I think there’s another huge thing that I know that Solidarity HealthShare focuses on as well, and that’s the overhaul of the FDA’s policies because the FDA is completely out of control.

Chris Faddis (19:04):

Absolutely. They’re out of control, and I would say they’re out of control and who is controlling is a big problem, right? Big pharma, big insurance, big hospital. There’s a lot of control of the FDA from third parties, which are the same third parties that the FDA is supposed to be regulating, and that’s a big problem. There’s some incentives there that are way misaligned that needs to happen. We’ve got to overhaul that. I think that will happen. I think there’s good people being put in place, and all the agencies under HHS, including the former head of the Alliance of Healthcare Sharing Ministries, which is sort of the policy arm of all the healthcare sharing ministries, the former head of that, Dave Weldon, who’s a former congressman, has been appointed to head CDC. (Oh, wow.) Dr. Marty Makary has been appointed to head, I believe, FDA, so there’s good people being put in place, and I think that we’re looking forward to seeing what happens there.

Molly Smith (20:07):

 I agree with you, Chris. I think this is so important that we see these good people coming in. Unbelievable.

Chris Faddis (20:12):

Yeah.

Molly Smith (20:14):

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Faddis (20:16):

People who fought for us during covid, let’s remember that Molly, these were the same people who were speaking out against some of these kind of ridiculous mandates and things.

Molly Smith (20:24):

Absolutely.

Chris Faddis (20:25):

So we should definitely be praying for them, but I also think let’s give them time. Let’s give them the opportunity to do what they set out to do, and I think we’re going to see some really good things and good change happening,

Molly Smith (20:37):

And you look at what’s already happening even before the administration takes over. I think some of these almost are a of covid governments within the United States are running scared at the moment because the whole medical system is almost like another whole section of the government. You see all these people beginning to say, maybe we better be careful here. Maybe we better start working on, because honestly, Chris, you mentioned it, and I think it’s very interesting to note that the pharmaceutical industry, all of, a lot of their top people go straight from the industry into the FDA. I mean, this is the way it was working. So that was their feed system. They were feeding into the FDA and then putting into place the things that would protect and support and grow the pharmaceutical industry. So hopefully this is all going to stop and hopefully we are going to see a return to ethical medicine again, and I think we will under RFK Jr. I think that’s coming, so it’s going to be-

Chris Faddis (21:50):

Yeah, I think so. I think, I think we’re going to see some really good things and good doors open for a lot of people come in and share their great ideas, a lot of doctors to share therapies that are working, and in the end, I think we’re going to have a more effective system, and hopefully we can keep it that way for a long time.

Molly Smith (22:12):

Absolutely. One last plug. I want you to tell people how to get involved with Solidarity HealthShare and where do they go in order to sign up.

Chris Faddis (22:22):

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well definitely call us at nine three five three two zero two eight four four nine three five three two zero two or visit us, of course at solidarityhealthshare.org, solidarity HealthShare org, and get all the information there. We’re happy to help you over the phone, talk through, and you’ve got great people who will talk through with you how to become a member and what healthcare sharing is like and get you all signed up.

Molly Smith (22:49):

What I love about this organization at the end, every time when we get Chris on, I get a little statement from them and it’s just, I love it. I love, love, love it. It says, when we fail to respect the sacredness of every human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, we fail in our purpose and missions. Catholic Health Chair makes up the largest group of nonprofit health share providers in the nation, and so Catholic medical professions have a responsibility to be a leading voice in the establishment and defending policies that defend the dignity and vocation of the human person. Amen. Chris Faddis, God bless you lots. Thank you for coming.

Chris Faddis (23:27):

God bless you. Thanks so much, Molly.

Molly Smith (23:28):

Alright, take care. Bye-bye. Bye. Don’t go anywhere. I will be back with you right after this very short break with another world-class inspiring guest.

Join The Movement

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.

To learn more about our community and how to join our fight against abortion on demand, click the banner below!