For decades, Americans have accepted skyrocketing premiums, opaque billing, and the constant fear of claim denials as the unavoidable reality of health coverage. A growing number of people, however, are walking away from that system entirely—and turning to an unlikely alternative: crowdfunding their medical bills with strangers.
That’s the core idea behind Join CrowdHealth, a membership-based platform that replaces traditional health insurance with a community of members who directly fund one another’s eligible medical expenses. There are no corporate middlemen, no annual caps, and no profit motive tied to denying care. Instead, thousands of members pool small monthly contributions so that when someone faces a $50,000 surgery or a $600,000 NICU stay, the “Crowd” steps in and pays the bill—often within days.
The numbers are striking. Members typically pay between $195 and $565 per month (depending on age and family size), far less than many ACA or employer-sponsored plans.
Bills are aggressively negotiated—sometimes slashed by 80%—before the remaining balance is sent to the community for funding. In return, members get unlimited crowdfunding potential, transparent pricing, and a suite of advocacy tools designed to keep costs low from the start.
It’s not perfect. Preventive care isn’t covered, there’s a $500 (or higher) out-of-pocket commitment per event, and it’s not technically insurance—so it won’t satisfy state individual mandates in places like California or Massachusetts. Pre-existing conditions can also complicate eligibility.
Yet for the tens of thousands who have already joined, the trade-offs appear worth it. Real bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars have been paid in full, month after month, without a single denial reported.
This model flips the script on healthcare by making it collaborative and cost-effective—but it’s a genuine shift from the traditional system.
What was once a solitary financial burden handled by distant corporations has become a collective act of mutual aid, powered by technology and a simple promise: we take care of each other so the insurance industry doesn’t have to.
Whether that promise holds as the community grows larger and members age remains an open question. For now, though, a quiet revolution in how Americans pay for medical care is already underway—one crowdfunded bill at a time.
Other peer-to-peer options
there are several companies and organizations offering similar models—primarily health cost-sharing ministries (HCSMs) or peer-to-peer crowdfunding platforms for medical expenses as alternatives to traditional insurance. These often involve monthly contributions to fund members’ bills, bill negotiation, and community support, though they are not insurance and have limitations like exclusions for pre-existing conditions or preventive care.Based on verified sources, here’s a list of notable examples with their official URLs (only including direct company sites, not review pages or articles):
- Medi-Share (Christian Care Ministry): https://www.medishare.com
- Liberty HealthShare: https://libertyhealthshare.org
- Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org
- Christian Healthcare Ministries: https://christianhealthcareministries.org
- OneShare Health: https://www.onesharehealth.com
- Medi-Share (Altrua Ministries): https://altruaministries.org
- Zion HealthShare: https://zionhealth.org