Liberty HealthShare recorded its 24th consecutive month of year-on-year enrollment growth in August 2026, with enrollment through August nearly 56% higher than the same period in 2025 and more than double 2024 levels.
The Canton, Ohio-based Christian health care sharing ministry reduced members' monthly share amounts in each of the past two years, including a 16% average reduction to family programme sharing contributions in June 2026, and returned more than $2 million to members. In 2025, members submitted nearly 205,000 medical expenses totalling $385.4 million. The ministry said discounts, negotiations and bill repricing saved members $259.3 million, with the community sharing $87.4 million in eligible expenses.
Liberty HealthShare is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that facilitates cost-sharing among members who agree to Christian statements of belief. It offers six sharing programmes, with suggested monthly amounts ranging from $87 to $362 for individuals and starting at $319 for families, and enrolls members year-round without requiring a qualifying life event.
Dorsey Morrow (pictured), Liberty HealthShare's CEO, said 24 consecutive months of year-on-year growth reflects Americans looking for affordable ways to manage healthcare costs and finding value in the ministry model.
Health care sharing ministries, including Liberty HealthShare, are largely exempt from state insurance regulation and the Affordable Care Act's consumer protections, including guaranteed coverage of pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits, according to a May 2025 briefing by Oregon's Division of Financial Regulation to state lawmakers. The division's presentation described payment of medical bills by HCSMs as voluntary rather than guaranteed.
That distinction is the most important single fact for any broker or adviser whose clients are considering a health sharing ministry as an alternative to conventional group coverage. Unlike a regulated insurance product, a health sharing ministry is under no legal obligation to pay a member's medical bills. Members share costs voluntarily according to the ministry's own guidelines, which can change.
Only a small number of states actively track HCSM operations. Colorado became the first state to require enrollment and financial reporting from HCSMs, under a law signed by Governor Jared Polis requiring annual reports on membership numbers, member payments and medical bills covered. Massachusetts collects data from HCSMs whose members claim credit toward the state's individual coverage requirement. Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies has reported that more than one million people nationally are HCSM members.
States have taken divergent approaches to oversight. West Virginia exempted HCSMs from the state's insurance laws entirely, effective May 26, 2024, while requiring ministries to undergo independent annual audits and provide members written disclaimers that the ministry is not an insurance company and that payment of medical expenses is voluntary, according to a legal alert from NFP. The disclaimer requirement itself is an indicator of where regulators believe the primary consumer risk sits.
Regulators in multiple states have previously taken enforcement action against other HCSM operators. Washington's Office of the Insurance Commissioner fined Trinity HealthShare $150,000 after finding it did not meet the state's legal definition of a health care sharing ministry. Texas obtained a temporary injunction against a related company, Aliera Healthcare, which later agreed to stop accepting new business in the state, according to a 2020 analysis by The Regulatory Review, published by the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Program on Regulation. Liberty HealthShare was not named in connection with either of those actions.
For brokers advising employer clients or individuals on healthcare cost management, Liberty HealthShare's growth figures reflect genuine market demand for lower-cost alternatives to conventional insurance. That demand is real and the ministry's reported savings figures are substantial.
The obligation for any broker recommending or presenting an HCSM alongside conventional products is to ensure clients understand what they are and are not getting. Payment is voluntary, not guaranteed. Pre-existing condition coverage is not required. Essential health benefits are not mandated. The regulatory protections that apply to licensed insurance products do not apply here. Those facts belong in the client conversation, not in the small print of a disclosure document they may not read.
Liberty HealthShare holds a 4.5-star Google rating, a 4.6-star Trustpilot rating, an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, a four-star Charity Navigator rating, a Gold Seal of Transparency from Candid and a "Give with Confidence" designation from MinistryWatch.
