A Google seek for Obamacare plans can direct customers to a collection of “lead-generating” web sites: nongovernmental webpages that join insurance brokers to customers.
Getty Images
disguise caption
toggle caption
Getty Images
![](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/06/gettyimages-481511185_custom-33400f8d3e11ac731b65b7273b42ed2212cbcc47-s1200.jpg)
A Google seek for Obamacare plans can direct customers to a collection of “lead-generating” web sites: nongovernmental webpages that join insurance brokers to customers.
Getty Images
Tina Passione wanted well being insurance in a rush in December. The newly retired 63-year-old was relocating to suburban Atlanta together with her husband to be nearer to grandchildren. Their home in Pittsburgh flew off the market, and they had six weeks to maneuver out 40 years of recollections.
Passione mentioned she went on-line to seek for the federal well being insurance market, clicked on a hyperlink and entered her info. She promptly bought a number of calls from insurance brokers and bought a plan for $384 a month. Later, although, when she went to a pharmacy and medical doctors’ places of work in Georgia, she was informed she didn’t have insurance.
In reality, it mentioned it proper on her card: “THIS IS NOT INSURANCE.”
Passione is one among 10 customers who informed KHN that they thought they had been shopping for insurance however realized later that they had been offered a membership to a Houston-based well being care sharing ministry known as Jericho Share. The ministry fashioned in 2021 when House of Prayer and Life Inc., a half-century-old Christian congregation, assumed the title Jericho Share, in keeping with Texas enterprise filings.
Health care sharing ministries are faith-based organizations whose members comply with share medical bills. The ministries grew in recognition earlier than the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for having insurance protection was repealed, as a result of they supplied a less expensive different to insurance, and the regulation exempted individuals in ministries from having to pay a tax penalty for not having insurance. But they should not insurance, are largely not regulated as such and do not essentially cowl members’ medical payments. Massachusetts is the lone state that requires ministries to frequently report knowledge, and solely about half of claims submitted to ministries there have been deemed eligible for cost. This spring, the Colorado legislature handed comparable necessities that await the governor’s signature.
The Better Business Bureau offers Jericho Share an F ranking, its lowest, and its web site reveals greater than 100 complaints filed in lower than a yr. Texas Department of Insurance paperwork present two complaints, from February and March, about Jericho Share. The division responded to each by saying it regulates insurance, which ministries should not, and forwarding them to the state lawyer basic’s workplace. The lawyer basic’s workplace didn’t reply to KHN’s questions in regards to the standing of the complaints.
John Oxendine, a lawyer who was elected 4 occasions as Georgia’s insurance commissioner, responded to KHN’s inquiries made to Jericho Share. He is dealing with federal expenses of conspiracy to commit well being care fraud that he mentioned are unrelated to Jericho Share. He denied any wrongdoing. If Jericho Share memberships are being offered to customers in deceptive methods, “that’s a good way for a broker to get fired,” he mentioned.
![KHN logo](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/10/07/khn_logo-highres_custom-s100-c85.png)
“Jericho Share does not tolerate any type of misrepresentation or unethical conduct on the part of its programs,” in keeping with a press release despatched by way of Oxendine. “Whenever we become aware of inappropriate conduct, we take appropriate action to remedy the situation.”
Consumers can all the time cancel their Jericho Share plans, Oxendine mentioned. Many customers who spoke to KHN did cancel their plans and obtain refunds, however a number of mentioned the method to take action was irritating. Some had been left to type out cost for payments they incurred whereas they thought they had been insured. At least seven of the individuals KHN spoke with mentioned they ended up with Jericho Share after starting their well being insurance searches on Google.
Encountering such points whereas purchasing for well being insurance will not be unusual, mentioned JoAnn Volk, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. She co-authored a 2021 report that discovered “misleading marketing practices” had been directing customers to different well being plans, like ministries, that may price greater than market plans and supply fewer protections.
“It’s especially unfortunate because people have set out to buy comprehensive coverage,” Volk mentioned.
Susan Fauman, 47, a metalsmith from Germantown, N.Y., relied on her partner’s insurance protection however wished her personal insurance coverage earlier than submitting her divorce paperwork final fall. Fauman mentioned her Google search landed her on a collection of what the promoting trade calls “lead-generating” web sites: nongovernmental webpages that join insurance brokers to customers.
![](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/06/susanfauman_vert-1d96d3d68c145aafb1694798ed54d81d8239a864-s1100-c50.jpg)
Susan Fauman thought she was shopping for well being insurance however realized later that she had bought a membership to Jericho Share, a Houston-based well being care sharing ministry.
Susan Fauman
disguise caption
toggle caption
Susan Fauman
![](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/06/susanfauman_vert-1d96d3d68c145aafb1694798ed54d81d8239a864-s1400.jpg)
Susan Fauman thought she was shopping for well being insurance however realized later that she had bought a membership to Jericho Share, a Houston-based well being care sharing ministry.
Susan Fauman
None of the customers KHN spoke with might say with certainty which website finally linked them to the brokers who offered them Jericho Share memberships. ObamacarePlans.com and AffordableHealthPlans.org are among the many lead-generating web sites that present up on Google when somebody searches with phrases comparable to “Obamacare insurance” or “healthcare marketplace.” Those website listings are literally ads that resemble strange Google search outcomes however are labeled with the phrase “Ad” and are positioned above probably the most related search consequence: the federal authorities’s official well being insurance market, healthcare.gov.
Google spokesperson Christa Muldoon mentioned firms that publicize on searches associated to the Affordable Care Act should show they are licensed to promote insurance through the federal or state marketplaces.
Those marketplaces let customers store for complete well being insurance, inform them whether or not they qualify for monetary help and join customers with enrollment help, if wanted. By distinction, lead-generating web sites usually simply promote the private info offered by customers to insurance brokers and brokers who can promote different sorts of plans.
Fauman mentioned she unwittingly put her info into what turned out to be a number of lead-generating web sites. She was quickly inundated with telephone calls from insurance brokers, she recalled.
Eager to get insurance, Fauman mentioned, she bought a plan for about $330 a month, plus a $99 sign-up price. She mentioned the dealer — who, she later realized, by no means named the plan — mentioned she’d have mainly no copays and no restrictions on the place to get care. But he didn’t inform her that it was a well being care sharing ministry, she mentioned, or that it wasn’t insurance — one thing she didn’t know to ask about. When she acquired her Jericho Share card with its disclaimer, she thought, “What the hell did I sign up for?”
Ministries and aggressive insurance advertising practices have raised eyebrows earlier than, and the Washington state lawyer basic issued a client alert final yr about “ads and websites posing as the official health insurance marketplace.” But Georgetown University’s Volk mentioned large-scale crackdowns would doubtless require cooperation by a number of state regulators as a result of states are the default enforcers of insurance guidelines. The Federal Trade Commission did convey a case towards a Florida-based operation in 2018, alleging it collected over $195 million by enrolling customers in “worthless plans.” The case is ongoing.
And it is not all the time clear who can and needs to be defending customers on this sophisticated area that covers private and non-private insurance, interstate commerce, web sites and well being care sharing ministries.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services manages the healthcare.gov web site. “When CMS sees an ad we think is misrepresenting HealthCare.gov, we share it immediately with the search engines,” Deputy Administrator Ellen Montz mentioned in a press release.
Louise Rasho, a spokesperson for MediaAlpha, which operates ObamacarePlans.com, mentioned in an electronic mail that the corporate’s code of conduct doesn’t permit brokers who purchase buyer results in mislead customers. It periodically screens calls to make sure compliance. She additionally famous that the positioning has disclaimers saying that it isn’t a authorities web site.
Craig Sturgill of Excel Impact, which owns AffordableHealthPlans.org, mentioned that if the corporate learns a dealer has damaged the regulation or used questionable ways, it terminates contracts and takes “further action” as crucial. “As a digital marketing company, we aren’t necessarily in the business of deeply educating consumers from beginning-to-end about all of their available options,” Sturgill mentioned in an electronic mail. “Our role is to connect consumers to advisors who can and should effectively educate consumers.”
The dealer callback quantity that client Hemani Hughes mentioned she used to right the spelling of her title on her Jericho Share plan — earlier than she realized it was a ministry — is listed on the web sites of the Better Business Bureau and the Utah Insurance Department as belonging to Florida-based Prosperity Health. In an electronic mail, Prosperity Health’s registered enterprise agent, Ahmed Shokry, mentioned it had “never sold Health Shares.”
Hughes, a 49-year-old communications strategist in Kansas, mentioned she was offered a Jericho Share plan in February after particularly telling a dealer she didn’t desire a well being care sharing ministry plan. Hughes mentioned she realized after her name that the dealer by no means talked about the plan by title, saying solely that she was signing up for a “national PPO” and strolling her by way of the copays.
When Hughes realized it was a well being care sharing ministry, she mentioned, she known as to cancel her plan. She was met with what she described as “a pretty manipulating and very belligerent gantlet of customer service reps and hold times” over a number of calls.
At one level, Hughes mentioned, the individuals she was talking with informed her it was irresponsible to go with out insurance — despite the fact that Jericho Share itself will not be insurance.
Hughes outlined her story in a criticism she filed with the Better Business Bureau. Jericho Share responded to the buyer watchdog that it was contacting Hughes immediately to guard her non-public well being info and mentioned, “We are working very diligently to investigate this complaint thoroughly.” Hughes finally acquired a refund.
![](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/06/tinapassione_vert-2a6a6060eeec43234782b63b0b8845ec0c9f4141-s1100-c50.jpg)
When Tina Passione was trying to find well being insurance on-line, she entered her info into what she thought was a authorities web site for Affordable Care Act plans.
Tina Passione
disguise caption
toggle caption
Tina Passione
![](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/06/tinapassione_vert-2a6a6060eeec43234782b63b0b8845ec0c9f4141-s1400.jpg)
When Tina Passione was trying to find well being insurance on-line, she entered her info into what she thought was a authorities web site for Affordable Care Act plans.
Tina Passione
Passione, in Georgia, mentioned she filed her criticism with the Better Business Bureau after she could not get a straight reply about cost for her physician appointments and prescriptions. In March, Passione canceled her Jericho Share plan and signed up for COBRA protection by way of her former employer for $782 a month.
“A bit expensive, but at least I know what I am getting,” Passione mentioned.
She mentioned she was reimbursed by Jericho Share for one month’s cost and is ready to listen to whether or not her bank card firm can recoup funds she made in January and February.
Fauman, who additionally filed a criticism, acquired a refund too, however spent two months uninsured and averted calling her physician whereas she sorted out the state of affairs.
“I was afraid of what it was going to cost me,” Fauman mentioned.
She finally bought market insurance with the assistance of a “navigator,” somebody skilled to assist customers enroll in protection with out incomes a fee. After subsidies, Fauman’s premium is round $95 a month, costing her about $2,800 much less a yr than what she mentioned her Jericho Share plan would have — and her new plan is definitely insurance.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. It is an editorially unbiased working program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).