Sedera medical cost sharing -- please share your experiences

I’d just balance out the pros with the potential cons before jumping in. Insurance is fundamentally to protect against catastrophic loss. The downside risk limit of a catastrophic event (let’s just say heart attack for example) is the out-of-pocket maximum for the plan (measured in thousands of dollars). The downside risk limit of having the same catastrophic event without insurance is bankruptcy and complete financial ruin. I get that there are upsides and promises etc. but it’s just being clear eyed about the worst case scenario is important in making this decision. As was posted in another comment, there could be ways to stack options that could be interesting to explore.

We just switched to an ACA plan from a healthshare. I encourage going to the Social-Media-Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named and look up the Healthsharing Reviews Group (while you're there, search for Sedera and other healthshare groups). You could check Reddit too. I've not seen much said about Sedera, positive or negative. However, given our experience, I would stick with healthshares that have a stronger reputation: MediShare, CHM, Samaritan, or Zion (note, if you're in CA, Zion does not meet the state's definition of a healthshare ministry due to being more recently established).

As you're probably aware, Sedera is not health insurance. Check the membership agreement for any process they have to settle disputes. You can't appeal to your state's insurance commissioner, and some providers may not recognize their pricing. Since your income will be lower post-retirement, it's worth checking what subsidy you're eligible for - and be careful that you're income isn't so low that you get auto-enrolled into Medicaid. You should qualify for low/zero premium ACA plans. The main issue is provider networks. Healthshares have no networks, but with an ACA plan you may have almost zero out-of-network (and out-of-state) coverage.

One strategy is you can enroll in a healthshare as your "primary" coverage and use a low/zero premium high deductible insurance plan as your "secondary" coverage. You could also check with an insurance broker about coverage that's off the ACA (not short-term or indemnity plans, but a PPO plan with a national network). Whether that's available or not just depends on what's approved in your state.