One solution to healthcare~

This has been an interesting and busy week! Not so much with gate guarding — that has all been pretty normal. Moderate days and quiet nights, so we can't complain.
The interesting part, if you want to call it that, began last Wednesday the 8th when I ended up driving to San Antonio to see a cardiologist. I have been having significant trouble with an out-of-whack heart rhythm for quite some time now, and it was getting out of hand. The night before, it had kept me awake until 3 in the morning. Believe me, it is hard to go to sleep when every other beat of your heart is off.
When we embarked on our journey, we made the decision to join a christian healthcare sharing group called Samaritan Ministries. To purchase even minimal coverage with a traditional insurance was absolutely cost prohibitive, yet we didn't want to risk going without insurance entirely. We had friends at church that encouraged us to check out this alternative and we discovered not only a great concept, but it costs far less than insurance.
Samaritan Ministries makes sure everyone knows it is not insurance. The concept for Samaritan Ministries (SM) is contained in the word "sharing". Those of us belonging to SM share our medical needs with each other. When Wayne and I send our check each month, we don't mail it to SM, but rather we mail it to a family that has shared a medical need. For example, when I went to the emergency room this past summer with the same irregular heartbeat, the bill came to around $800. We submitted the hospital bill to SM, and after taking the $300 off the top that we are responsible for, they assigned the remaining amount to other families in the ministry. We received checks directly from them, and thus we were able to pay the remaining amount of the bill. Although there are certainly more details to it, that is the basic idea. We have found it works quite well, and have been blessed as we trust the Lord to provide for our medical needs. No longer are we paying through the nose to support the mainstream healthcare bureaucracy and for that we are thankful.
Back to the heart rhythm issue briefly ... I was able to locate not only a cardiologist, but one that specializes in electrophysiology. (Definition: the science of elucidating, diagnosing, and treating the electrical activities of the heart.) For the first time in 30+ years, I actually had a doctor listen to me — for almost two hours — and give me a diagnosis! He was able to catch the problem on an EKG, and determined that I have a relatively common problem that should respond to beta blockers. There is a surgical option as well — ablation — but I would obviously prefer to avoid that if possible. Anyway, I am currently taking the meds and so far, so good. We will see what happens in the long run, but I am cautiously optimistic.