Solidarity HealthShare President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis visits The BS Show to discuss the milestone of ten years for the organization. Listen to or read the transcript 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, you got a very big anniversary coming up. July 1st will be the 10th year anniversary of Solidarity HealthShare. And take us back to the beginning and how long before July 1st did you start talking to … You’re one of three co-founders, you and well, Dr. John Oertle is one and Brad Hahn is the other. Was it you who instigated it or who came to who first and how did this all start?
Chris Faddis (00:41):
Yeah, it started with Dr. John Oertle and I talking a lot about what needed to happen with the Obamacare mandates coming down the pike.
(00:49):
And just kind of thinking of ideas and solutions and we knew about healthcare sharing or I did and we started looking into that and realizing that that could be a viable solution. And then that’s when we went to Brad, who’s an attorney friend and got his input and over time. But really that started in 2012. Oh, it did. What’s wild is it’s been 2016 is when we really launched publicly, but in 2012 is when we first started working on the idea. And the biggest thing we figured out was there was a lot of legal work to do and also making sure that we had a path to be fully recognized under the federal law as a healthcare sharing ministry. So those steps of those four years were all about finding the best path forward. So yeah, in 2016 we launched and at that point, Brian had come on as a partner on it and we had done a lot of the legwork over the years.
(01:42):
And actually the good news was in that four years, we also learned a lot about the industry. We learned even more about the issues in medicine and it gave us a more full rounded idea on what we could accomplish.
Bob Sansevere (01:53):
Now anyone can join Solidarity HealthShare, but you do have a Catholic link. To be health sharing, is there always a religious link? Because I know some of the other ones, I think Medi-Share has a religious, not Catholic, but I mean, is that an important part or is it a necessary?
Chris Faddis (02:09):
Yeah, the Affordable Care Act under the law, there’s an exemption under religious exemptions in Section 1500
(02:16):
That has the exemption for healthcare sharing ministry members and it is specifically related to sharing a common set of beliefs and faith. So that was a big part of it was there wasn’t anything for Catholics at the time. Like you said, we certainly have non-Catholics that are part of the ministry, but in general, the statement of faith is open to many people of faith. In fact, Bob, I don’t know how many people on your show know this, but it was actually a Mennonite church that partnered with us to help us move forward and that’s where our exemption comes from. So the parent ministry is actually Melita sharing ministry would spawned out of a small church who had a healthcare sharing ministry since 1977 and we partnered to launch Solidarity. So there’s actually everything from Mennonites to Catholics as part of Solidarity HealthShare.
Bob Sansevere (03:05):
Do you know what was the first health sharing group? And you said 1977 for the one you meant the Mennonite one, but how far back does it go? Who was the first you know?
Chris Faddis (03:15):
Well, the Amish and the Mennonites have their own kind of version of this that they’ve been doing for who knows how long, but certainly since the early 1900s in the US and maybe even longer where they do these extra collections to care for healthcare,
Bob Sansevere (03:29):
Oh!
Chris Faddis (03:30):
Those kind of things. And that’s where it started in a small sense, in a local sense. But the first nationwide opportunity was a group called Brothers Keeper or Christian Brotherhood, sorry. And they became Christian Healthcare Ministries, but they started in the early 1980s and that started from a pastor whose wife and son were in a really bad accident and he sent a newsletter out asking for help and he ended up with the exact amount of money he needed to pay the hospital and that’s what inspired her-
Bob Sansevere (04:02):
Ok.
Chris Faddis (04:03):
Which isn’t all that different from what inspired me, which is that my wife had colon cancer. She passed away in 2012, but before she passed away, we needed to get advanced and alternative treatments to keep her alive. And it was the Christian community who came together to support us to pay those bills. So it’s very similar founding in a sense that that’s what showed me like, wait a minute, there’s a better way to do this than insurance where we’re helping each other-
Bob Sansevere (04:26):
Yes!
Chris Faddis (04:27):
And supporting each other.
Bob Sansevere (04:28):
Well, okay, from your infancy, which would’ve been in 26, July 1st, 2016 to now it’s been 10 years, I mean, if you use it like infancy, obviously you’re past the toddler stage. Are you in your teen years? Are you in your early 20s? I mean, where would you say in terms of growth you are? Because I know you’ve still got a lot more, but you’ve done a lot in 10 years.
Chris Faddis (04:53):
Yeah, I mean, I would say that’s a really good way to look at it. I mean, I think you could say that initially the first few years where we had an operating partner, we were probably in our toddler years and then working our way into our adolescence. And really I think all of this last couple of years, a lot of the things you and I have talked about has been about becoming adults is really 10 years is enterprise level development of our services and our offerings and our systems and being ready to scale even broader. And I think that’s happening. We’re seeing the growth, we’re seeing not only that, but the other areas that we’re serving in and things. So yeah, it really is that kind of coming of age I think in a way. I wasn’t sure, Bob, and most of my business experiences starting in launching things and even in marketing, I did a lot of launch work like launching projects and those kind of things.
(05:44):
And so this is a long trail for me to run an organization and there’s always been that question of how long would I do it? But I think it is. It’s an interesting place because we’re at that spot saying, okay, now what’s the next 10 years? What’s the next 25 years look like? And I’m not a spring chicken, I’m not near retirement, so we’ve got some time. But I think we’re at that point where the multiplication will happen much faster. I think we’re making decisions better. Our systems, our team, everything we’re doing is proven now. So it’s really a good place to be.
Bob Sansevere (06:18):
Well, and I only know a fraction of the things that you’ve done, but some of the things just in the last year you’ve gotten a much better tiered program for young people to make it much, much, much more affordable. Not that, I mean, all of your tiers are far more affordable than traditional healthcare. But when I say much, much, much more, I mean, it’s for what, a couple hundred bucks if that, per month for if you’re young.
Chris Faddis (06:41):
Someone in their early 20s, it’s under $100 to have a fairly comprehensive program, very similar to what your family has, but maybe a little more focused on the telehealth and those kind of things. But yeah, I mean, we really have expanded. I think the offerings, I think I told you before, we will be launching very soon a new Medicare program. Right now we do offer an option for Medicare for people that are seniors for a discount, but now we’re offering an additional program that will take almost a place of a gap type of program-
Bob Sansevere (07:12):
Instead of Blue Cross Blue Shield. Which a lot of people have Blue Cross Blue Shield with Medicare. Exactly. Or they might have health partners, but yes, it becomes an alternative to that which is-
Chris Faddis (07:22):
The nice thing is too, I think a lot of the seniors when they’ve left, most people leave because they’re going on Medicare and a lot of them when they’ve left, they’ve actually been disappointed because they liked the fact that part of what they’re doing is supporting other families and those kind of things. And so I think it’s going to be really, really neat to bring on more seniors into that fold and also to have people have an option so they don’t have to leave because a lot of people do leave when they turn 65.
Bob Sansevere (07:45):
Yep. No, it’s wonderful that you are giving that option. And as you noted with multipliers, there’ll be more things coming along as time goes on. I mean, you did do a lot in your first 10 years, but this next 10, I would say you’ll be soaring with the number of things that you’re able to do and are doing just because you’ve done things already and well, you know where you’re heading now, you’ve got the path that’s being charted or is charted already for you in a lot of ways.
Chris Faddis (08:14):
Yeah. And I think we’ve seen the model proven now. I mean, it’s not just us, but I think in general the idea as we’ve talked about a lot, I mean more and more is finally the whole idea of price transparency in medicine is finally almost mainstream and certainly under this presidency it’s mainstream, but I think it’s even becoming more bipartisan mainstream. And I think that’s something that certainly we could be proud of being part of, but I think there’s more we can do and there’s a lot of really good opportunity ahead as we go forward. I mean, to date we’ve shared over half a billion dollars in medical bills and discounted them by 64, 65%.
Bob Sansevere (08:52):
Half a billion.
Chris Faddis (08:53):
Imagine where we’re at in 10 years with the growth we’ll see. And I think that the more of that growth, the more influence we can have on the marketplace. When you influence 500 million, it’s really a drop in the bucket to the medical marketplace of 4.6 trillion. So we’ve got a long way to go, but the more people that join healthcare sharing, the more we can have an influence on this market.
Bob Sansevere (09:16):
But the thing I want to make sure people did not miss what you said, that you have saved up to 60% of what a lot of these hospitals and doctors and providers are asking for because you negotiate it and you get it downward. And
Chris Faddis (09:32):
Actually over 60%. So yeah, it’s closer to 64 or 65%, but yeah, and we get it down to that price and it’s fair and reasonable. And I think both sides are happy. We don’t want doctors to be poor either. You want your doctor to sleep in a good bed before he cuts you open, but we also don’t want you to go in the poor house because you need a knee surgery. No,
Bob Sansevere (09:53):
That’s great.That’s good.
Chris Faddis (09:54):
And there’s so many more advances, as we’ve talked about before with precision medicine and the whole MAHA movement. I think we’ve got so many great things ahead of us and really support people in a big way.
Bob Sansevere (10:04):
And the place to go is solidarityhealthshare.org, solidarityhealthshare.org. The number’s there, the information. You pick up the phone, you call, you won’t be put into a maze. You will actually talk to a person very quickly. So check it out if you’re looking for an alternative to what is traditional healthcare, solidarityhealthshare.org, Chris Faddis, co-founder and president. Chris, thank you and congratulations on 10 years.
Chris Faddis (10:30):
Thanks, Bob. God bless.
Bob Sansevere (10:31):
All right!
Chris Faddis (10:32):
Thanks for being with us the whole time.
Bob Sansevere (10:33): It’s been a great ride. Allright, we’ll take a quick break. The BS Show’ll be right back