Chris Faddis, Founder and President of our Christian healthshare, Solidarity HealthShare, joined Bob Sansevere on The BS Show to talk about our organization’s origins and why healthsharing ministries are more important than ever. Read the transcript below or listen to the audio above this paragraph.

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, there’s a lot happening with health sharing ministries and one of the mean, from the government level or federal level, there’s a possibility now that people can deduct whatever they pay in or whatever their monthly sharing amount is, which would be big because you deducted on their taxes. That hasn’t happened before, but there’s a lot going on. And what I wanted to talk to you about though is the beginning. You’re one of the co-founders, you’re president and co-founder, Brad Hahn is another co-founder, and Dr. John Oertle is the third. Was it you who picked up the phone and said, we need to do something? And were you all friends at the time, or was it because of you all had a similar need or feeling that something needed to be done? What’s the genesis of Solidarity?

Chris Faddis (01:05):

Yeah, well, I mean there’s a couple of things. One is at the time, back in 2012, my first wife was dealing with stage four colon cancer. She later died in 2012. But during that period I was dealing with from 2011 through 2012, the nightmare of the American healthcare system and dealing with the crisis like cancer and dealing with insurance issues and all of that, and just seeing the whole time something we could do better. And honestly, Angela’s condition was so severe that really wasn’t a whole lot of traditional medicinal options. Chemo was all but ruled out and there was radiation but weren’t doing anything. And we needed to go to alternative and innovative providers to look for other options and some advanced therapies that weren’t covered by insurance. And actually a lot of people supported us financially to make that happen. So we fundraised for her care. We got a lot of support financially, and really that’s what knocked back the cancer and gave her a lot more time. I mean, those treatments that would not have been covered by insurance-

Bob Sansevere (02:16):

Ok

Chris Faddis (02:16):

-Were Things that bought her time. And so that was the first impetus. Then in 2012, when the Obama administration at the time announced their Affordable Care Act mandates and the ways they were going to enforce the Affordable Care Act, a lot of people in my circle were talking about what are we going to do? And so Dr. Oertle and I were having these conversations about is there some sort of alternative to insurance that we could create? What is this? And we ultimately came up with this idea of using healthcare sharing as a method for people like us that wanted an option. And we also saw that as an opportunity to expand and say, Hey, why should somebody have to raise money for integrative treatments that are sometimes more effective? Let’s make that part of what we share into as part of this work. And so that was really the impetus, Bob, was how do we help other people who don’t have options when they come into these healthcare crisis? And then how do we solve this problem? If you remember, the affordable mandate not only was mandating that we had to all carry certain coverage, but also that coverage had to include things that many Americans found objectionable

(03:25):

And at best, just elective things that we shouldn’t have to pay for other people. And so those two things really what brought together, and Brad was an attorney that we both knew through our church and we said, Hey, let’s get Brad’s idea on this. And the more we talked to the Brad, the more he wanted to be a part of it. And that’s really how it all took off, ultimately with a very small ministry that was doing healthcare sharing to launch Solidarity in 2016. But that’s really how the whole thing kicked off.

Bob Sansevere (03:57):

 Alright, so Brad was an attorney, Dr. Oertle was a doctor. What was your background?

Chris Faddis (04:02):

Honestly, it was businesses and startups and also some ministry work. I was a youth minister at the time. But yeah, I ran some restaurants, I did some different businesses and startups, a lot of marketing. So our minds, it really did work.

Bob Sansevere (04:16):

It was a perfect melding. Yeah, because having-

Chris Faddis (04:19):

It was a perfect melding!

Bob Sansevere (04:19):

For the attorney and the doctor and the guy who did startups because clearly that was a startup.

Chris Faddis (04:24):

Yeah, absolutely.

Bob Sansevere (04:25):

Now I’ve been-

Chris Faddis (04:26):

Yeah, we were really cowboy in the beginning, Bob, when we first launched it, we launched it just as an idea like, Hey, we’re going to kick off this idea of a Catholic healthshare. And we put up a page website with sign up, give your email if you’re interested. And it was practically overnight within a couple of weeks, it was like four or 5,000 people had signed up saying, yeah, we want to be part of this and we didn’t have a problem. Let’s see if this has the thing. It took a lot of time to find the right path and to partner with that other ministry. But yeah, we had to have that bit of courage to go out in faith and see if this thing could go. And it did. I mean, we launched in 2016 publicly, we existing ministry, and then within a year we had grown 1200 families. And then that growth just continued.

Bob Sansevere (05:14):

Well, what’s interesting,

Chris Faddis (05:15):

That’s definitely something people need.

Bob Sansevere (05:16):

What’s interesting about this, I started with Medi-Share in 2015 and they told me about Solidarity and that’s how I got involved. So I must have joined you. I was one of your early, not early is, but early

Chris Faddis (05:28):

On, I think you joined probably 2016, 2017, somewhere in there. I think we started working with you.

Bob Sansevere (05:34):

Yeah, I mean, it’s been almost 10 years and it’s been great. And I mean, you obviously have come a long way as in health sharing because you make a lot of trips and I know that Brad has as well to Washington DC to talk to legislators to get things more favorable for health sharing because you, this is the line. I mean, it’s a great alternative to traditional healthcare. It’s not going to be as expensive and don’t, it’s-

Chris Faddis (06:05):

Not going to be as expensive, and it’s not going to have as much control over what you do with your life.

Bob Sansevere (06:08):

Well, you could be in another state and not worry about it. That’s the other

Chris Faddis (06:11):

Thing. Yeah, absolutely. Right.

Bob Sansevere (06:13):

If you’re traveling, that could be a big issue or a big concern. So that’s a major plus. But you really mean, I told you now, one of the best things, and you’ve done a lot of good things, is you have your own version of telehealth, which it’s a huge savings because you go to the doctor, you’re talking now, it’s probably 600 bucks for a visit. When you make a phone call, a doctor calls you back, you give your symptoms, and in most cases, they’re going to prescribe medication for you. I mean, obviously nothing. I’m not talking about things that are serious. If you’re having a heart attack, you don’t do that. But if you’ve got a cold, you think you have strep throat, things that are beyond a cold, obviously, but you can get meds prescribed, that would be exactly what you would get at the doctor’s office. So that’s a big plus.

Chris Faddis (07:01):

Yeah, I think the fact that they also, like you said, I mean for something serious, they’re very good at triage. You do need to go to the er, they’re going to tell you, you need to get in right away, and I can’t diagnose this over the phone, that kind of thing. And that happened for me. My daughter ended up, she was having a lot of stomach issues and they sent us to the hospital. Sure enough, she had a ruptured appendix, and she’s apparently got a high tolerance for pain. So she had already ruptured and she barely, she really didn’t notice the pain until afterwards.

Bob Sansevere (07:30):

Oh my gosh. Alright.

Chris Faddis (07:31):

And so that’s the kind of thing that Dial Care does. It’s such a huge benefit.

Bob Sansevere (07:35):

Yep. Oh, I just used it a few weeks ago, actually. My wife used it, my son used it, and I used it. We all had, my son and wife had the same thing going, but I had something else. We all was a lot of crud going around and that we all got different prescriptions for things, so it was great. Now, as you look ahead, what is on the one year, the five year, the 10 year plan for Solidarity, are there big things that you’re trying to do, or sometimes they don’t need to be big to make a big difference?

Chris Faddis (08:06):

Yeah. Well, a big focus right now is growth, Bob. I mean, we see the value of what we’ve been able to do. Our members stay on average for 44 to 46 months, which that’s not a common thing in this world, I don’t think you’d see most people stay on their health insurance for that long. And so people want to be a part of this. It’s a lot of benefit there. So we’re really focused on growth right now. And the other side of it is really focused on how do we help the ecosystem around healthcare sharing? So finding ways to support and invest in more independent clinics and doctors and the like, and really building out those partnerships. And we’ve drastically increased how many preferred providers we have, and really building out those partnerships, the country is a big focus because we see that as you knowing, which we’ve talked about this before, you knowing that you can go, for instance, to the Alpha Clinic in Minnesota really helps to ease the whole process and makes it better. You’re going to work with the doctor who’s on the same page with you and with your healthshare.

Bob Sansevere (09:14):

Well, my wife has been dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and she’s gone to a rheumatologist, but I had said, you now have a connection with a group in Minnesota that’s also in Arizona. And I said, you need to look into that, because that’s something where they basically, they recycle your blood. That’s not what they call it, but that’s the layman version of it where they spin your blood and re-inject and it just, it’s for healthier blood. I mean, it helps healing and it helps with things. So I think it’s something that she should at least look into. And that’s to me, is one of the great things about what you’re doing at Solidarity. You are opening up other roads or avenues in different states where people have them in their state that they don’t. And we talked about this too, about sometimes maybe you need to look into flying somewhere because it might be cheaper overall to get treatment in another state.

Chris Faddis (10:05):

To get the right treatment.

Bob Sansevere (10:06):

Yeah.

Chris Faddis (10:07):

And a big thing, big focus these days, this idea of alternative and integrative therapy has really become the idea of precision medicine, which is where we truly can target the needs of an individual down to whatever the therapy, what your wife might need versus even the compounding of the medication directly to the person to target whatever disease they have. That whole idea of precision medicine has come a long way, and it’s a big piece of what a lot of our members are taking advantage of. Everything from orthopedics and using stem cells instead of surgery, all the way to genomic testing of cancer tumors, to target chemotherapies and other agents towards killing those cancer. So there’s a huge benefit right now with precision medicine and solidarity, as far as I know, is largely the only group out there in the country that’s actually sharing into those kind of expenses,

Bob Sansevere (11:01):

Which is great. And Chris, I greatly appreciate the time on this Solidarity HealthShare, solidarityhealthshare.org. Check it out. As I say, it’s a great alternative to traditional healthcare. Thanks so much. Take a quick break. The BS Show’ll be right back.