Health Share plans – also called “medical cost-sharing plans, take a very different approach to prescription drug benefits compared to traditional healthsharing plans.
Most people who don’t qualify for a big Obamacare subsidy can save a good deal of money by joining a healthshare plan, rather than a traditional health insurance plan. But you should thoroughly understand your plan’s prescription drug benefits and limitations.
This article will explain the difference between health share plans and traditional health insurance plans with specific regard to how they approach prescription drugs.
We’ll also look at several of the top health sharing organizations in the country, and explore their prescription drug benefits.
Note: All HSA for America clients get free access to our special HSA Advantage Rx discount card, which provides discounts of up to 70% on thousands of commonly-prescribed medications at 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.
You also get discounts on lab fees, images, and many other medical services by presenting your HSA Advantage card.
Not yet an HSA for America client? Let’s fix that! You can become an HSA for America client just by signing up for a health plan of any kind with one of our expert Personal Benefits Managers. Click here to make an appointment for a free consultation, quote, and recommendation.
More details on the HSA Advantage Rx discount card below.
Overview of Health Sharing Plans
Healthsharing plans are an affordable alternative to crazily over-priced traditional health insurance plans.
These non-insurance medical cost sharing plans are non-profit associations of health-conscious, like-minded people who share your values, and who agree to help share the medical expenses of other plan members.
If you join a healthshare plan and have a large medical bill, you’ll present it to the healthshare organization for sharing. If your expense qualifies under the terms of the healthsharing plan, you’ll be responsible for a certain amount that you agreed to – similar to a deductible in the traditional health insurance world. The remainder will be paid by your fellow plan members sharing the expense.
You’ll also pay a set monthly contribution per month, which goes toward the sharing of other members’ expenses.
Health share plans don’t qualify for a subsidy under the Affordable Care Act. But their monthly costs are typically 35 to 50% less than the unsubsidized cost of a traditional ACA-qualified insurance policy you buy over your states’ exchanges.
For this reason, healthsharing plans frequently save thousands of dollars per year for a family of four .
Healthshare Plans and Prescription Drugs
Healthsharing plans are huge money savers. But they typically don’t include the cost of prescription drugs directly in the same way that an insurance policy does. In fact, many healthshare plans do not share for things like preventative care and prescriptions.
Instead, health sharing organizations use their massive purchasing power to negotiate discounts with pharmacies and drug companies, along with other medical service providers.
These are essentially drug discount plans, rather than insurance. But discounts are significant, especially for the most commonly-prescribed generic drugs.
These lower-cost discount plans are not the same thing as insurance. They work best if you are generally in good health and you don’t currently need to take any brand-name, high-cost prescription drugs.
Some health share plans will share the cost of drugs prescribed and administered in the hospital, or for a certain number of days after diagnosis or hospitalization, while others don’t include prescription drugs at all in their sharing benefits. However, all major healthsharing plans do have a prescription drug discount plan available that allows you to buy at least generic drugs at very deep discounts.
In some cases, health sharing organization drug discount plans enable you to get certain generic prescription drugs for free. All you pay is a predictable monthly subscription fee for your household, and possibly shipping and handling or overnight charges if you need them quickly.
Of course, every program is different and has different rules, and makes different arrangements with drug sellers.
Here are a few of the well-known programs and their benefits for prescription drugs.
Altrua HealthShare
Altrua HealthShare provides a powerful prescription drug discount program through Manifest Rx.
Members can use their Manifest Rx benefits at any of more than 62,000 pharmacies nationwide, including most of the familiar large pharmacy chains and big box retail stores with in-house pharmacies. The plan allows members to access some of the lowest prices on over 800 commonly-prescribed generic medications.
Alternatively, Altrua members can take advantage of a free home delivery program.
Altrua and Manifest Rx have designed a very good, easy-to-use mobile app that makes it a snap to track refills and order your medications.
Sign Up With Altrua HealthShare
You can enroll in Altrua HealthShare online at any time: just click here, scroll down to the enrollment section, select your state from the pull-down menu, and follow the prompts.
CARE+
The CARE+ plan is one of the most affordable healthshare plans on the market.
It doesn’t share prescription drug costs directly. But CARE+ Members can sign up for their drug concierge benefit for an additional $19.95 per month.
The CARE+ prescription drug concierge program is very cost-effective For members who take multiple medications.
For those households just taking one or two prescription medications, it’s usually more efficient to pay out of pocket directly, and use a discount plan like the HSA Advantage Rx card or GoodRx.
The CARE+ Health Concierge can help you find the very best pricing available out of all options (including international mail order pharmacies).
Enroll in CARE+
Enrolling is very easy, and you can do it in just minutes online. You can enroll yourself and your family online. Click here, and follow the prompts.
DPC DIRECT
DPC DIRECT is a healthsharing plan specifically designed to work with a direct primary care plan membership.
Members have access to a healthcare concierge service, which will help you search to find the best possible pricing for your medications at a pharmacy near you.
HSA for America clients can use our HSA Advantage Rx card to buy any of thousands of prescription drugs at significant discounts from more than 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.
For more details about the DPC DIRECT healthsharing plan, click here.
You can also enroll yourself and your family online in minutes. Just click on this page, find the pull-down menu in the Quote section, select your state, and follow the prompts.
HSA Advantage Rx
The HSA Advantage Rx card is a powerful free benefit exclusively for HSA for America clients.
It’s easy to use, and allows you to save up to 80% on generic medications and up to 20% on brand-name medications at over 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.
You can even use it to buy veterinary medications for your pets at deep discounts.
HSA Advantage Rx can be used in conjunction with any medical cost-sharing or health insurance plan. It’s a great companion to any plan that either doesn’t include prescription drug coverage, or that has a high deductible that you don’t expect to reach during the plan year.
To get the HSA Advantage Rx card, all you need to do is become an HSA for America client.
Click here for more information about the HSA Advantage Rx card.
To become a client, just click here and make an appointment for a free consultation with one of our Personal Benefits Managers.
You don’t need to wait for an open enrollment period – You can enroll in a healthsharing plan at any time year round. However, healthsharing plans may impose a waiting period before sharing costs related to pre-existing conditions.
Medi-Share
Unlike many other health share plans, Medi-Share directly shares certain prescription drug costs as part of its core plan structure.
However the sharing is limited compared to traditional health insurance plans that have a prescription drug benefit.
Medi-Share shares up to six months of prescription drug costs provided those drugs are related to treating an eligible medical condition. The six months is a lifetime limit per medical condition.
This works well for acute medical conditions that are expected to resolve over time. However, expensive medications for chronic conditions could become unaffordable after six months have elapsed.
So, if you have a chronic illness needing consistent high-tier or high-cost prescriptions, and generics are not available or practical, and you cannot afford the cost of the medicine, then Medi-Share may not be a great match for you.
However, Medi-Share can be a great solution if you and the other members of your household are generally in good health and don’t expect to need high-cost medications for chronic conditions.
For more information on Medi-Share, click here.
Enroll in Medi-Share today!
Enrolling in Medi-Share is easy, and takes just a few minutes. To enroll right now, just click here, scroll to near the bottom of the page, select your state from the drop down menu, and follow the prompts.
HSA SECURE
HSA SECURE is currently the only major health sharing plan that preserves eligibility to contribute to a health savings account, or HSA..
A prescription drug discount plan is available to HSA SECURE Plan members via MyFreePharmacy.com.
Members can sign up for this benefit for an additional $19.95 per month. This may be cost effective for members who take multiple medications. For those households just taking one or two prescription medications, it’s usually more efficient to pay out of pocket directly, and use a discount plan like the HSA Advantage Rx card or GoodRx.
To join HSA SECURE, you must be a business owner or have self-employed income. If you don’t qualify, you can join CARE + – a similar plan, but without the HSA feature and that excludes some preventative care benefits like annual wellness visits, mammograms and colonoscopies.
Enroll in HSA SECURE
Self-enrolling is easy, and takes just minutes. Just click here, and follow the prompts.
You may be asked to document your business ownership or self-employment income during the application process.
netWell
netWell is a leader among health sharing organizations when it comes to providing assistance to members with the high cost of prescription drugs.
netWell’s pharmaceutical arm, netWellRx, is the nation’s first “free pharmacy.” This new and revolutionary approach provides members with free access to more than 800 commonly-prescribed generic drugs. These include both acute medications (to meet immediate clinical needs) and maintenance medications (to manage chronic health conditions).
There’s a one-time enrollment fee of just $4.94.
After that, one low monthly membership gets you free generic prescriptions for everyone in your household! Medications are delivered right to your doorstep or P.O. Box.
Compare netWellRx’s pricing with what your family is currently paying for all their generic prescription drugs combined.
netWellRx Pricing
- Single individual plan: $29.00 per Month
- Single + 1: $34.00 per Month
- Your entire family living at your address: $38.00 per Month
Need your medication right away?
Sometimes you can’t wait for the postman. You need your medication right away.
With netWellRx, you don’t have to wait. netWellRx’s program allows same-day pickup of up to 21 days’ supply of any of more than 800 acutely-needed and commonly-prescribed generic medications.
You can pick up your emergency supply at more than 64,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacy locations nationwide, including CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, and Target.
What about non-generic/brand name medications?
Brand name drugs are not included with your membership. However, netWell’s staff of board-certified pharmacists can help you determine if there is a generic alternative for your prescription that you can get free with your membership.
If there is no suitable generic, you can still get the drug, usually at a substantial discount negotiated by netWell, thanks to the organization’s massive purchasing power.
The netWellRx program is available as an optional add-on for all netWell healthsharing members.
Note that netWellRx is not an insurance plan. It’s a membership-based discount plan.
Enroll in netWell Today!
Enrolling in netIWell is easy, and takes just minutes. Just click here, scroll to near the bottom of the page, select your state from the drop down menu, and follow the prompts.
Sedera Health
Sedera health actually shares certain prescription drug costs directly in some circumstances.
Long-term maintenance medications are normally not shareable for Sedera members. However, prescribed and/or injectable medications related to a qualifying medical condition are shareable for the customary cost of the first 120 days after a new diagnosis.
After 120 days, these costs are not shareable.
(Treatments for cancer and sublingual immunotherapy — a curative treatment for allergies — are not subject to this limitation; medications related to organ transplants are limited to 12 months duration.)
All medications, prescribed or not, administered during inpatient hospital stays will be shareable.
Sedera has various mechanisms in order to substantially reduce the cost of maintenance medications, including the use of a discount pharmacy program. Curative medications are prescribed with the intent to cure a disease or ailment, serve a short-term bridge toward recovery/healing (e.g., antibiotics, chemotherapy medications, or short-term pain medications, etc.).
Maintenance medications are prescribed to control a medical condition (e.g., cholesterol medication, blood pressure control, thyroid medications, etc.). Please Note: Sedera Members do not share the cost of prescriptions for maintenance of chronic or recurring conditions (e.g., diabetes, eczema, blood pressure control) beyond the initial 120-day period.
If you have prescription drug needs that aren’t included in Sedera’s sharing criteria above, you can use the HSA Advantage Rx discount card or another pharmacy discount plan like GoodRx.
Sedera also has an excellent concierge program that can help you find the lowest available prices for your prescription drugs.
Enroll in Sedera
You can sign up with Sedera at any time. Click this page to get a free quote and begin the enrollment process.
Universal HealthShare
Universal HealthShare is one of the few healthshare programs that shares prescription drug costs directly. Their plans will share up to $500 per member per month for the cost of eligible medications. \
Universal HealthShare members have access to RxSimpleShare, administered by Southern Scripts. This prescription drug discount program allows you to share your prescription costs at any of 60,000+ participating pharmacies nationwide.
The plan costs $25 per member, per month, and covers hundreds of common prescriptions. You’ll have a co-share of just $5 per prescription for up to a 30-day supply.
Many of the approved drugs are generics, which helps keep costs low.
Sign Up for Universal HealthShare
You can sign up for Universal HealthShare at any time by clicking here. Select your state from the dropdown menu, and follow the prompts. It’s easy, and it takes just minutes to enroll!
Compare Pricing on the Best HealthShare Plans Available
Find Out More
Make sure to check with your healthcare sharing ministry what their policy is when it comes to prescription coverage. If you do have questions about healthshares, check out our Frequently Asked Questions page or give us a call.
Here are some additional articles on health sharing programs: Best Healthshare Plans Comparison Guide – 2023 Update | Health Care Sharing Ministries: An Affordable Alternative to Traditional Insurance
Here are some additional pages related to this article: 7 More Ways to Save on Your Medical Costs | Additional Benefits – Save Money on Prescription Drugs, Lab Fees, and More!
Wiley is President of HSA for America. He believes that consumers should have choice and price transparency, so they can make the best healthcare decisions for their needs. Read more about Wiley on his Bio page.