A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire

[Nevilledog]

https://www.propublica.org/article/liberty-healthshare-healthcare-sharing-ministries-obamacare

Bonnie Martin kept the bleeding secret for as long as she could. Her sisters, boyfriend and sons knew nothing of her illness until suddenly, during a family gathering in October 2018 at a diner in Annapolis, Maryland, she began hemorrhaging.

A tumor had burst through the wall of her uterus. Doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy and removed what cancer they could reach. She needed multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, expensive stuff. As her family grew fearful, Martin walked that fine line between resilience and denial — she’d beat this, she said. She focused instead on fun things ahead, a trip to Ireland with her boyfriend and sisters, for instance, and a Rolling Stones concert.

Luckily, or so Martin thought, she had placed her trust — and her money — in Liberty HealthShare. Liberty is what’s known as a health care sharing ministry, a nonprofit alternative to medical insurance rooted in Christian principles. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on such organizations for basic health coverage. They promise no red tape, lower costs and compassion for the sick. Although Martin wasn’t religious, she found comfort in Liberty’s pledge to “carry one another’s burdens.”

Martin received treatment that pushed her cancer into remission. But 18 months later, it returned, this time in her lungs. She was dying.

Liberty covered her bills at first, but then, without warning or explanation, the payments stopped. Suddenly, she faced $10,000 in unpaid charges. Her whole life, she’d had pristine credit. Now creditors called constantly and sent harassing letters.

*snip*

[DFW]

1. The God Squad strikes again.

When it comes to health insurance, there should be full separation of church and rate.

[malaise]

2. Let us PREY!

That is all

[dalton99a]

3. Why are these assholes not in jail?

For generations, members of the Beers family of Canton, Ohio, have used Christian faith to sell health coverage to more than a hundred thousand people like Martin. Instead they delivered pain, debt and financial ruin, according to an investigation by ProPublica based on leaked internal documents, land records, court files and interviews. They have done this not once but twice and have faced few consequences.

Patriarch Daniel J. Beers, 60, lies at the center of the family network. He was a leading figure in a scheme in the 1990s involving a health care sharing ministry that fraudulently siphoned tens of millions of dollars from members, court records show. Two decades later, he played a key role in building Liberty into one of the nation’s largest sharing ministries, several of the nonprofit’s current and former employees told ProPublica.

Four years after its launch in 2014, the ministry enrolled members in almost every state and collected $300 million in annual revenue. Liberty used the money to pay at least $140 million to businesses owned and operated by Beers family members and friends over a seven-year period, the investigation found. The family then funneled the money through a network of shell companies to buy a private airline in Ohio, more than $20 million in real estate holdings and scores of other businesses, including a winery in Oregon that they turned into a marijuana farm. The family calls this collection of enterprises “the conglomerate.”

Beers has disguised his involvement in Liberty. He has never been listed as a Liberty executive or board member, and none of the family’s 50-plus companies or assets are in his name, records show.

From the family’s 700-acre ranch north of Canton, however, Beers acts as the shadow lord of a financial empire. It was built from money that people paid to Liberty, Beers’ top lieutenant confirmed to ProPublica. He plays in high-stakes poker tournaments around the country, travels to the Caribbean and leads big-game hunts at a vast hunting property in Canada, which the family partly owns. He is a man, said one former Liberty executive, with all the “trappings of large money coming his way.”

[Scrivener7]

4. Honestly at this point, anything with "Liberty" or "Christian" or "Ministry" in its name is a

predatory scam, and I wouldn't go near it with a ten mile pole.

[Bettie]

5. That's where I am too

and if I see a "Jesus Fish" symbol on a business or any of their advertising, or a "We are a Christian Business" sign, I will not even step foot inside. IN my experience (personal) that is just a signal that you're going to be ripped off and that your credit/debit card information is not safe.

[Scrivener7]

6. Absolutely. How sad is this? When they trumpet their Christianity, there just

isn't any doubt any more that they're doing scummy things.

Many of my loved ones are religious. But the Christian label seems to make people think they can live lives of cruelty and dishonesty with impunity.

[Bettie]

7. They have a firm belief

at least white evangelicals do, that it doesn't matter what they do in life, as long as they've said the magic Jesus words, they will be rewarded after death.

I grew up in a family like this...my little family is not religious, but we try to be decent people because it is the right thing to do, not because of any carrot/stick religion.

[Scrivener7]

8. I know a couple - have known them for a long time. They never had much interest

in religion. Then they moved to a very red area and now they're in church all the time, decorating their house with Bible phrases, at the same time as they are pushing trumpy crap ALL the time. I swear the religious part is just to fit in with the neighbors.

I know I shouldn't judge others' spiritual experiences, but this all happened in their seventies and it is so outward-pointing, so finger shaking at everyone else, I just don't believe it is anything more than a social posture.

I think that is what "Christianity" means to a lot of people. It's just a club that lets them look down on other people and judge them.

[dalton99a]

9. or any business named "Patriot"

unless you want to give money to a Trump cultist asshole

[Scrivener7]

10. Yes. It's sad. Because "liberty" and "patriot" and "Christian" should mean

such very different things.

The American flag too, sadly.

My current bumper sticker is a play on the Gadson Flag with the snake shaped like a uterus saying "don't tread on me." But my NEXT ones (making an assumption here) will be a Biden 2024 sticker, and above it an American flag.