Non-religious alternatives to Medi-Share and CHM

If you started researching health sharing and landed on Medi-Share or Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM), you’ve probably already hit the point where you’ve been asked to sign a Christian statement of faith — and if that’s not something you can honestly agree to, it’s worth knowing you have real options rather than assuming health sharing isn’t for you.

Medi-Share and CHM are two of the largest, most established names in the category, but they’re also two of the more religiously specific ones. Both require members to affirm Christian doctrine, and CHM asks for regular group worship attendance as well. Neither is a fit if you’re not a practicing Christian willing to sign that statement honestly. The good news: the underlying model — members contributing monthly toward each other’s eligible medical needs — doesn’t actually require any of that, and several organizations run it without a religious test.

Why People Look Past Medi-Share and CHM

A few things send people searching for an alternative, specifically:

• They aren’t Christian, or aren’t willing to sign a doctrinal statement they don’t believe.
• They’re Christian but don’t attend church regularly, which rules out CHM’s attendance requirement even for believers.
• They disagree with specific doctrinal exclusions — most faith-based plans won’t share costs for procedures they consider morally objectionable, regardless of the member’s own views.
• They want a plan built around general wellness and responsibility standards rather than religious ones, even if they have no objection to Christianity itself.

None of these are unusual reasons, and none of them mean you’re stuck paying for full-price traditional insurance instead.

The Secular Health Share Landscape

A handful of organizations run the same cost-sharing model without a faith requirement. They differ from each other in coverage breadth, network structure, and how strictly “secular” they are, so it’s worth understanding the categories rather than treating them as interchangeable:

• “Any-faith” plans don’t require a specific religious affiliation but still frame membership loosely around shared values or responsible living — open to people of any belief system, or none.
• Explicitly secular health shares drop the religious framing entirely and build membership guidelines around general conduct: accurate health disclosures, illegal drug use restrictions, and agreement to the plan’s published rules for what’s eligible.
• Peer-funding / crowdfunding platforms use a related but distinct model — members fund each other’s bills directly rather than through a traditional sharing pool — and are usually secular by default, but worth understanding as a different category rather than a straight swap for a health share plan.

Across this landscape, coverage details vary quite a bit: some secular plans cover more (telehealth, prescriptions, mental health, maternity) than stricter Christian plans that exclude these by doctrine, while others are narrower. Pricing, waiting periods, and provider network access also differ plan to plan and change over time, so always confirm current terms directly with the organization rather than relying on older comparisons.

What MPB Health Does Differently

Smart Share works as an advisor for MPB Health, which runs on the same basic principle as Medi-Share and CHM — members contribute monthly, and those contributions go toward eligible medical needs within the community — without the religious membership test.

There’s no statement of Christian faith to sign, no church attendance to verify, and no doctrinal exclusions on what can be shared. Instead, membership is based on general guidelines: providing accurate health information at enrollment and agreeing to the plan’s published rules for eligible expenses. If Medi-Share or CHM otherwise looked like a reasonable fit for your budget and health situation, and the statement of faith was the sticking point, MPB Health is built to remove exactly that barrier without changing the underlying model you were already evaluating.

How to Evaluate Any Alternative Before You Switch

Whichever secular option you’re comparing against Medi-Share or CHM, check the same handful of things every time:

1. Read the actual membership guidelines, not just marketing copy, to confirm there’s genuinely no statement of faith, attendance requirement, or doctrinal exclusion buried in the fine print.
2. Compare what’s actually shareable — some secular plans cover more than strict Christian plans (telehealth, prescriptions, mental health, maternity), others less. Don’t assume “secular” means “broader coverage” by default.
3. Check pre-existing condition waiting periods, which vary significantly across both faith-based and secular plans.
4. Confirm state availability. Not every plan, religious or secular, operates in every state.
5. Understand what you’re not getting. Like Medi-Share and CHM, secular health share plans are not insurance and aren’t required to pay any given bill — read the guidelines for how eligible needs are determined before you rely on one for major medical costs.

Bottom Line

Medi-Share and CHM’s Christian statement of faith is a real eligibility gate, not a formality — but it’s not a requirement of health sharing as a model, just of those two organizations specifically. If the faith requirement is what’s holding you back, secular alternatives like MPB Health run the same cost-sharing structure without asking what you believe.