Jenna Carlesso discusses this story with Connecticut Public Radio s Lori Mack.
Last March, days after returning home from a family trip to Spain, Paloma Munoz’s 4-year-old son started to cough.
He spiked a fever overnight and began feeling short of breath. Alarmed, Munoz found a hospital with drive-up COVID testing and took her son to get swabbed.
When the results came back negative, she was relieved. Then a bill for $270 arrived in the mail.
“I was just speechless,” she recalled.
Her husband had changed jobs a few months earlier, forcing her family to shop for new health insurance. Unable to afford a policy through their employers or elsewhere, Munoz found an advertisement online for a cheaper, non-traditional type of coverage. For $500 a month, she joined Alliance for Shared Health, a religious health care sharing ministry that pools its members’ premiums to pay out some of their medical bills.
Monthly
‘It appears this is a scam:’ Complaints accelerate against health care sharing ministries in Connecticut
Paloma Munoz said every time she goes to a doctor, she gets a surprise bill. “Sometimes that bill is a big bill, and sometimes 100% of the bill,” Munoz said. “I’m like, so what s the point of me paying you monthly if I still have to pay the entire bill? I feel like I’m throwing out my money here.” | photo by: Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org
Last March, days after returning home from a family trip to Spain, Paloma Munoz’s 4-year-old son started to cough.
By Jenna Carlesso, CT Mirror
Last March, days after returning home from a family trip to Spain, Paloma Munoz’s 4-year-old son started to cough.
He spiked a fever overnight and began feeling short of breath. Alarmed, Munoz found a hospital with drive-up COVID testing and took her son to get swabbed.
When the results came back negative, she was relieved. Then a bill for $270 arrived in the mail.
“I was just speechless,” she recalled.
Her husband had changed jobs a few months earlier, forcing her family to shop for new health insurance. Unable to afford a policy through their employers or elsewhere, Munoz found an advertisement online for a cheaper, non-traditional type of coverage. For $500 a month, she joined Alliance for Shared Health, a religious health care sharing ministry that pools its members’ premiums to pay out some of their medical bills.
This story was originally published on March 2, 2020.
The pain in Timothy Corridon’s left shoulder began not long after he signed up for a new, nontraditional type of health coverage.
It spread down his arm and turned into numbness. He noticed weakness in both of his hands.
After seeing several doctors, the 57-year-old Norwalk resident was referred to a neurosurgeon and underwent an urgent operation to address a Chiari malformation, a condition in which brain tissue extends into the spinal canal. Untreated, the disorder can cause dizziness, problems with balance and hearing, an unsteady gait, difficulty swallowing and speech issues.