faith as the solution to health care costs?

I watched this really interesting 3 minute clip on ABC's World News today about an alternative to traditional health care insurance...faith. While I was quick to scoff when I heard the title of the segment, "Faith-based Health Care for Evangelicals," by the end I was surprised how simple and apparently effective this is.

How it works:
There are three Christian health plans in the US, where members cover each others' major medical bills. To be a part of these health plans, one must be a church-going Christian and agree not to smoke, drink heavily, or have extramarital sex. Families pay $285/month to these faith-based health plans like Samaritan Ministries, which in turn distributes the money out to members who have medical bills that month.

The video made sure to point out what the critics are saying, things like...since it is not technically insurance, it is not regulated by the government and there is therefore no guarantee that medical bills will be paid. Even though there is no guarantee that everyone's bills will be paid, Samaritan Ministries says that they have never failed to cover a member's medical bills in their 15 years of existence. That's more than can be said about a lot of other insurance companies...

After watching this I still have a lot of questions, like about how this health plan deals with preventative care or ensuring that their members adhere to the requirements (namely, going to church and staying faithful in marriage). But nevertheless, it appears to be a cheaper alternative that is working for tens of thousands of Americans.

Here's the link to the video and article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/faith-based-health-care-evangelical-christians/story?id=8696127