Recently, Solidarity HealthShare President Chris Faddis joined The BS Show to discuss a recent KHH poll revealing that more Americans are concerned about healthcare costs and how they will afford them. Read the transcript or listen to the interview below.
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, the AP has a story out about, I’ll read the beginning of it. The proportion of Americans without health insurance health steady at around 8% of the population in 2025, according to new findings from the US centers for disease control and prevention. And what’s interesting is it also talks about massive changes to Medicaid. The government safety net health program for low income Americans passed into law last year could result in 10 million more uninsured individuals over a decade according to the congressional budget office estimates. And there’s also people at the expiration of certain Affordable Care Act subsidies, which had offset premium costs. That the AP is saying around five million fewer people are expecting to enroll in those plans in 2026 compared with 2025 according to healthcare research, nonprofit KFF.
(01:08):
And I mentioned all this because this could be, well, good news for Solidarity HealthShare, solidarityhealthshare.org, because they need an alternative, a good alternative, an affordable alternative to traditional healthcare and you offer that. And have you noticed an uptick recently? Because these factors are, they’re coming into play, they’re not fully there, but they’re coming into play now. And are you getting a lot more at least inquiries into healthcare or health sharing?
Christopher Faddis (01:37):
Yeah. Remember that people who are on health sharing wouldn’t be included in the insured numbers. So a lot of those folks are in fact-
Bob Sansevere (01:45):
They’re already with you. … Members
Christopher Faddis (01:46):
Of HealthShare or someone else. Yeah. And yeah, it’s absolutely, I think more and more people have realized this is a better model. I mean, even folks who are getting the subsidies for Obamacare that were making way more money than they should for having getting free healthcare,
(02:00):
Even those folks, they were hardly able to use the programs. And so when the subsidies expired, they just went to the market. And I think that’s the misnomer. I think a lot of people, it was made to look like all these people aren’t going to be able to afford it. A lot of these people could have afforded healthcare, but somebody’s offering you a subsidy that’s going to bring it down to 40 bucks, you’re going to take it. And so yeah, we’re seeing a lot more folks going to healthcare sharing. It’s definitely another spike in time of people joining, which is great. We love seeing it. A lot of people who have tried all the other ways you can do healthcare and have kind of said, “Wait a minute, why am I doing it like this? ” So we’re very pleased to see what’s happening and we’re here to serve.
(02:43):
We want more members. More members means more sharing dollars for members’ needs. And so it’s a great thing. But yeah, the Medicare thing’s going to be interesting because I think a lot of that is also some of this extended extended categories that we’re allowing more people to join and I
Bob Sansevere (03:02):
Think that- Okay. And giving it to illegal immigrants, people who are just here because they decided to come here and they get it for free. And obviously it gets expensive when you’re just handing it out like it’s a
Christopher Faddis (03:13):
Peasant case. Look at California, they can’t even afford it. I mean, they’re going to go bankrupt over it. And I think there’s a lot of other problems we’ve got to solve and we can’t solve them all just by continuing to slapping this Band-Aid and adding it to Medicare or adding it to these Obamacare subsidies. Remember, Bob, the other thing about this Obamacare piece was last year was a massive percentage of people who are receiving subsidy who never used their plan. So –
Bob Sansevere (03:37):
Yeah
Christopher Faddis (03:38):
You think it was something like 12 million people that were getting a subsidy for Obamacare that never used their actual health plan, which means all of that money was profit to the insurance company. This isn’t what the system was built for. The whole reason was to be a safety net, to be a way for people who need the care, not just to give away these free incentives to insurance companies.
Bob Sansevere (04:01):
Well, I mean the insurance industry right now, there is a mess there. And I mean places like you, Solidarity HealthShare. I mean, I’m sure you’re taking a look at a lot of the mistakes they’ve made and make sure that those aren’t repeated with health sharing.
Christopher Faddis (04:16):
Right, right. Absolutely. We’re doing our best. I mean, obviously costs are still rising, but we’re still maintaining our savings. I mean, we were looking recently, Bob, and I mean, we’ve at this point saved something like just under $530 million of medical bills and we’ve saved over 300 million on that for our members. So 64% on average. And I mean, think about that. That comes out to, we’ve saved our households about $18,000 per year in medical costs that we’ve been able to reprice.
Bob Sansevere (04:48):
Terrific.
Christopher Faddis (04:49):
So that’s a big number, but we’re learning what we have to do to make sure we keep that going instead of going the other direction. Well,
Bob Sansevere (04:59):
You know what I’ve been impressed about with what you’re doing, because you have made or created a number of different tiers for people. You have a tier for young people who may not need insurance like if you’re older and you make that very affordable, you have like a … Exactly what you call, you have like a catastrophic type insurance available where you’re going to be out of pocket on most things, but if it’s bad, you’re going to be there to be their safety net and that’s not.
Christopher Faddis (05:25):
Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got the new program for that. It’s there for those catastrophic needs, mostly emergency, right? And you have a bad fall whenever
Bob Sansevere (05:33):
You- Yeah. That’s probably too strong a term catastrophic for emergency.
Christopher Faddis (05:37):
Yeah. Well, it’s pretty close though. Yeah. I mean, that is helping. I think that’s where a lot of folks who do need something lower costs have been going. There’s also a lot of people who are just like, “Look, I’m going to take care of my own healthcare generally. I just want something for that bad case.” And so that’s fine. I mean, those things are going well, but yeah, we still have that comprehensive level of the SolidarityOne program where a lot more things are shareable, wellness visits, all of that and the pricing is still very, very competitive. Then again, if you’re used to getting a subsidy where you’re only paying $40 out of pocket, we can’t give you that unfortunately, but we do have that catastrophic program can get you pretty close, which is good.
Bob Sansevere (06:19):
And just another point, I called there the other day because I had a quick question about something and less than a minute on hold, which is terrific because you get a person, you’re not getting shuffled through some maze, which is a nice touch and I certainly appreciate it.
Christopher Faddis (06:35):
It’s a nice touch. There’s some days are harder than others on the phones, but I’m telling you, I think we’re something like 80% of calls were answered within 30 seconds. So we’re happy with that. We want to keep it going. And then also, as you and I have talked about, providing more and more resources online for people that if they don’t-
Bob Sansevere (06:51):
Yeah
Christopher Faddis (06:51):
Want to wait on the phone or have to talk to somebody, we’ll be able to serve them as well.
Bob Sansevere (06:57):
It’s terrific. Now, last time we chatted, we talked about Ebola in the Congo and it hasn’t really exploded out of the Congo, but the World Health Organization, the head of it traveled to Kinshasha and this is not good. Trump said he’s going to send Americans exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya to try to keep it from coming here. Is there anything you’re hearing that this thing could explode out of the Congo?
Christopher Faddis (07:24):
I haven’t heard a lot more other than the same. I mean, they’re obviously still taking steps to keep it measured and contained and that’s good. I mean, honestly, the thing I was more concerned about was that antivirus. They brought all these-
Bob Sansevere (07:39):
Yeah
Christopher Faddis (07:40):
People to Nebraska or something that had antibiotic. I’m like, why are you bringing them into the middle of the country? But apparently that’s where we have one of these facilities. So I think with Ebola, I think we’ve had these outbreaks before. I think that generally the world health agencies and everything are pretty well versed on how to contain it to where it is. And obviously the US is going to do everything they can to keep it. So I haven’t heard a whole lot that makes me concerned. I think it’s what we talked about last week. You keep monitoring it. It seems like they’re taking all the right steps, which is good.
Bob Sansevere (08:12):
And you mentioned the hantavirus. That sort of has really tamped down. I haven’t heard much about … I mean, at any day, oh, there’s a real outbreak, but it seems like it’s been contained and it’s not going to be an issue where we all have to worry about it. But that’s also bodily fluids. I mean, this is not from contact from someone or breathing the same air.
Christopher Faddis (08:33):
Yeah I think that’s the difference too, right? It’s not like COVID where you open your eyes and somehow you spread COVID to somebody. Bodily contact and fluids and things is a lot more … You got to be more committed into what you’re doing to be able to pass that on. So I think we’re going to be okay.
Bob Sansevere (08:56):
Well, it’s good to know we’re going to be okay in some areas, right? That’s the best thing.
Christopher Faddis (09:01):
Yeah.Yeah. Now you want to ask me about other things going on in the world. I don’t know, but I don’t know.
Bob Sansevere (09:05):
I don’t know-
Christopher Faddis (09:06):
I think the Good Lord’s going to take care of us. We’re going to get through it all.
Bob Sansevere (09:08):
Well, that’s it.
Christopher Faddis (09:09):
And who would have thought? I mean, look at us now and we were talking about COVID. It’s actually been six years. I mean, it’s a lot. Time has gone by fast and here we are. Everything’s going great.
Bob Sansevere (09:19):
So you’re saying we don’t need to learn all about measuring qubits and start building an arc. We’re okay for now. (Not quite. Not quite.) Good to know. All right.
Christopher Faddis (09:27):
But I do know a guy if you know.
Bob Sansevere (09:29):
If you know a guy that has a lot of wood. All right. Chris Faddis, the co-founder and president of Solidarity HealthShare. Solidarityhealthshare.org. Check it out. Great alternative to traditional healthcare. Healthsharing is great. We’re going to take a quick break and the BS Show will be right back.