You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger proponent of both the concept and spirit of healthsharing than Virginia’s Mike Long.
An accomplished author and professor at Georgetown University, Long discovered Liberty HealthShare when exploring options after his employer-provided insurance was no longer available to him in 2016.
Long has written best-selling books, award-winning screenplays and stage plays, and numerous speeches and essays.
Like many, Long investigated options available through the healthcare marketplace. “I was shocked at how expensive it was,” he said.
Then he heard a radio commercial for Liberty HealthShare.
“I looked into it and found Liberty HealthShare was about half the cost of the others and aligned with my beliefs,” he recalled. Soon after, Long, his wife and three children became Liberty HealthShare members.
“It is everything I was promised,” he said. “I’ve never had a single bad experience.”
Liberty HealthShare, he said, “gave me the freedom to see the doctor I wanted when I wanted.”
Long recalled his neurologist recommending he have an MRI and being taken aback at the cost involved. “The numbers were terrifying. But everything was paid quickly and I didn’t have to go through the hoops of insurance. Liberty HealthShare told me to go find the doctor I wanted to see.”
Long said his interactions with Liberty HealthShare staff were equally as positive. “The people on the phone are polite, sympathetic, and engaged.”
While he appreciated the financial savings and the freedom of managing his own healthcare, Long was a bigger fan of being engaged in a community of like-minded people wanting to help one another.
“I enjoyed being treated as a responsible adult and being trusted with my own healthcare,” he said. “It is both a responsibility and a privilege to be a member. It works very, very well. I always recommend Liberty HealthShare to friends who are self-employed.”
It is this feeling of shared responsibility that prompted Long to temporarily leave the ministry.
Approaching retirement, Long said he has some potentially costly health issues that come with age. He opted to transition back to health insurance for a while.
“I did not want to ask the group to share in these expenses.”
But, once he is Medicare-eligible, Long will look to rejoin the ministry through the Liberty Assist sharing program.
“We are all in this together and each of us must be responsible.”
