Next Week | Theft & Obamacare | Episode 12

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:09

For our live studio audience and to all of you guys who are watching across the dem internets, welcome to Next Week with Jeff Durbin.

00:49

I'm Jeff Durbin, let's talk about the news, ready? So it was discovered that North Korean generals actually watch

00:58

MSNBC's anti -Trump show Morning Joe. They watch it every day to fuel their hate.

01:06

The show has also fueled these generals to buy some Prozac from the commercials and hire an accident lawyer.

01:13

That's what they got. So, a police dog was reportedly fired after losing interest in bomb sniffing.

01:20

Believe that, okay? Fluffy decided art was his true calling. Bigfoot was supposedly spotted this week in California.

01:30

Yes! He was running across a farm with a pig over his shoulder. The farmer would like to get the pig back, by the way.

01:36

So if you happen to see the pig anywhere, please let someone know. We do have a picture of it for your reference.

01:43

Here it is. That's Harvey Weinstein. Yep. Justin Timberlake.

01:51

Yes, Byrne, that's right. Justin Timberlake is set to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. For all of you guys that watch that, 15 years after the

02:00

Janet Jackson controversy. Yes. I guess he was right when he said what goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around, y 'all.

02:12

Now after strongly hinting at running for Senator, Kid Rock said in an interview with Howard Stern that he was definitely not running for Senator.

02:22

Yep. He said he wanted to keep his reputation and dignity. Please. All right, guys.

02:28

This is Next Week with Jeff Durbin. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Like and share the episode. We'll see you in a minute. Thank you.

02:33

Enjoying the show? You can also enjoy Apologia All Access for only $9 .99 a month.

02:39

You're able to get into shows, after shows, Apologia Academy, all sorts of amazing, great stuff.

02:45

And you're going to want to log on. Like I said, it's only $9 .99 a month. It's the same price as a cup of coffee.

02:52

Wait. Is that? Am I reading that right? A cup of coffee? There's no way that script is right. What? Who buys coffee for $9 .99?

02:59

Who's buying a $10 cup of coffee? This cup of coffee I stole from a man. Again, there's a way that you can get around life without $10 for a cup of coffee.

03:09

That doesn't make any... If you are spending $10 for your cup of coffee, you are spending the wrong amount of money in your life.

03:17

Your whole life is disarray. You need to rethink your entire life. Trust me. Take that $10.

03:24

Like, how much foam did you get on that cup of coffee? Take that $10. Go use it just once for this month and get

03:30

Apologia All Access. Then, learn to buy a $5 cup of coffee.

03:36

I think we're growing here. Apologia All Access. Right now.

03:41

Sign up. Buy coffee a little better. Welcome back, everybody.

03:49

Welcome back. Everyone watching live across social media right now. We're back right now, and we're going to have the blend of the week.

03:56

You guys ready for this one? Yes. You know that Joy put a lot of work into this one when you see kitty cats on the bow tie.

04:05

This blend of the week right here, this one is called the Coffee Beanie. Every coffee bean is responsibly sourced.

04:14

Yes. Farm to table. Barrel aged. Sustainable, of course. Cruelty free. It's non -binary.

04:21

It's a non -binary bean. In other words, we got this coffee at Whole Foods. All right.

04:27

Let's give it a little taste of this. Oh, man. I can already taste how much better I am than you.

04:35

All right. Welcome, guys. Let's talk. Tonight, we're going to be talking about healthcare.

04:43

Before you get comfortable, take a seat in an overly expensive wheelchair and strap on a $3 ,000 neck brace that you could have gotten for 10 bucks at Goodwill.

04:53

Because today, we're talking about healthcare in a way that nobody else is going to, I assure you.

05:00

Lately, the topic of healthcare is filled with debate and includes more drama, more drama than the last few seasons of Grey's Anatomy.

05:08

Of course, a lot of things have been more exciting and dramatic than Grey's Anatomy, including but not limited to plain rice cakes, corporate training seminars, and Dr.

05:17

Ben Carson. But with many different opinions on what should happen with medical in this country, it's no surprise that it's causing quite a bit of disagreements.

05:27

Take for instance this discussion on Fox News after Trumpcare unsuccessfully tried to replace

05:33

Obamacare. One of the more disgraceful things I think he said today was, Obamacare is going to fall apart.

05:39

This is a good political thing to happen. Let it fall apart. You're talking about millions, hundreds of millions of people who are on healthcare, and they're on Obamacare.

05:46

No, they're not. You want it to fall apart. No, they're not. Yes, they are. They're not hundreds of millions of people on Obamacare. Okay, so 70 million.

05:52

No, no. There's like nine, there's like 12 million and half of those are on Medicaid. Oh, no. That are expanding Medicaid.

05:57

Medicaid? Stop it. Stop it. No, don't stop it. Medicaid. It happened in Obamacare, Bob. Medicaid was always there before Obamacare.

06:04

No, no. Obamacare was Medicaid. Can I just point out? Wow. Bob really pinched a nerve there.

06:09

It was almost like right before the show someone said, okay, Bob, whatever you do, don't say the word

06:15

Medicaid around your co -host. He will go crazy. Now, the real answer to how many

06:20

Obamacare users there are is about 11 .4 million. And this is the result of that.

06:26

So they were coaxed into the Obamacare system. They're paying premiums over there. And now they're asking, well, what did

06:32

I get for my premium? I'm having to go outside the system to get healthcare. That's right. Some people with Obamacare can't even afford

06:39

Obamacare. It's nearly impossible for actual people to be able to afford this.

06:44

Sometimes I wonder when the government is trying to discover like what's actually affordable to the average person, do they watch the sitcom

06:51

Friends for reference? Hey, Chandler just lost his job and him and Monica still live in that huge apartment right in the city.

06:58

If they can afford that, then they can definitely afford this premium. You see, look, there's proof that socialist

07:04

Medicare causes the prices to be high and unfair. But what would the prices of a capitalist healthcare system look like?

07:13

Well, the prices would be affordable because hospitals would have competitive pricing in order to get their customers.

07:19

But also, and check this out, healthcare could actually even be free in some cases, like really free, like actually for realsies free.

07:30

So watch this clip in the movie. Wait till it's free. Responsible to an insurance company.

07:35

I'm not responsible to the government. I'm only responsible to the patient.

07:41

Plus in doing so, I can do whatever I want. We give a discount to teachers and preachers.

07:48

We see foster kids for free. We see people have cancer absolutely for free.

07:54

If I was part of a government agency or work for an insurance company, it would be against the law for me to do that.

08:00

Do you guys catch that? If the doctors accept Medicare or Medicaid, it's illegal for them to perform their services to anyone for free.

08:08

So, all of you annoying cousins need to stop asking your doctor cousin to look at that mysterious and weird bump.

08:16

Not only are the prices with Obamacare too high, that's just one of several promises that President Obama made that ended up not actually being true.

08:24

The Affordable Care Act was signed by the President in 2010, and since then, he has repeated one reassuring phrase.

08:33

If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you.

08:39

It hasn't happened yet. It won't happen in the future. But it is happening. The President's health care law raises the standards for insurance policies, which many consider to be a good thing.

08:51

But hundreds of thousands of Americans whose policies don't meet the new standards are being told that their health plans are being canceled.

08:59

If y 'all like it, you can keep it. You see, that's what parents say to their kids at grocery stores so they don't fuss the whole time.

09:06

You really want that Barbie, Tommy? Well, I mean, you can keep it until we check out, and then we are definitely enrolling you in karate.

09:14

And look, that's just the beginning of the problems with Obamacare, just the tip of the iceberg. Not only have the premiums doubled or tripled or even quadrupled in many cases, but Obamacare is also resulting in longer wait times at the emergency rooms.

09:28

Now, we already have to wait long enough without Obamacare, right? Now, they're going to make us wait so long that we'll actually have to read the good housekeeping magazines.

09:39

Who does that, right? Now, the reason the wait times are longer is because fewer doctors are actually accepting

09:45

Medicaid due to the small compensation that they receive from it, which leads to an even bigger problem.

09:52

A report from the Association of American Medical Colleges found that a staggeringly less amount of medical residents are entering into the field of primary care.

10:03

Now, that will lead to an epidemic of very little doctors in about 10 years. In other words, doctors don't want to spend half a million dollars on becoming a doctor just to make the same amount as someone who says, would you like fries with that?

10:18

In a capitalist hospital, doctors actually exist, and they're rewarded for the quality of their work.

10:25

And not only that, but when doctors get freedom in their practice, they get to stand up for their

10:31

Christian beliefs. In fact, let's look at the 1800s for reference. In American history, we actually have had a successful pro -life movement in the past, in the 1870s and 80s and 90s.

10:46

Interesting. When abortion was legal, when there were flourishing abortion trades, when peddlers were taking abortifacient pills all the way to the

11:01

Pacific from manufacturers in Ohio and New York, and a pro -life movement arose, a coalition of politicians, lawyers, doctors, and pastors led by the pastors, starting with Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, and a very, very prominent pro -life newspaper in New York City called the

11:25

New York Times. And together, they transformed the whole picture of medical practice in the

11:35

U .S., created the American Medical Association, banned abortion, and banned all kinds of other lewd and manipulative medical practices.

11:47

And it was forthright, and it was unapologetic in proclaiming the gospel from the start.

11:57

Okay, before I go on, does my beard really look that red? Good grief. I look like a ginormous leprechaun.

12:03

Now, doctors and pastors together created the American Medical Association.

12:09

The American Medical Association. Now, as you can see, with a Christian medical system, doctors not only see their patients, they actually care for them.

12:18

They can care for them. But Obamacare patients don't even have many options to doctors. It also limits their options to insurance companies.

12:26

In fact, check this out. Seven states only have one insurer, which means that insurer has power over its patients.

12:34

Now, look, just lose against the kid in Monopoly, and you'll realize quickly that when someone's in charge of your money, they can and they will do anything to take your finances, your pride, and your chips and salsa.

12:47

Now, limiting someone's option to one thing isn't an option. I mean, that's like going to Golden Corral and realizing you have the choice between unsanitary hot food or unsanitary cold food.

12:58

It's the same thing, and it's detrimental to your health. Okay? Now, not having an option to your medical provider was a serious issue.

13:06

And thankfully, we have Obama's kryptonite, President Donald J. Trump. Last week, the president signed an executive order that opens the borders to insurance companies, allowing you to get insurance from another state.

13:23

Insurance companies will be fighting to get every single person signed up. And you will be hopefully negotiating, negotiating, negotiating, and you'll get such low prices for such great care.

13:37

It should have been done a long time ago, and it could have been done a long time ago. This will allow thousands of small business employers to have the same purchasing power as large employers to get more affordable and generous insurance options for their workers.

13:54

Rich and Leslie Baudry. Where are they? Where are they? How are you? Nice to see you.

14:00

How are you? Come on, get up here. Nice to see you, Leslie. They're here today from Louisiana, a great state.

14:10

Just left. Had a little hurricane damage, a little sort of they got hit, like Charles. So, okay, so why does he talk about hurricanes like it's a casual tour he just goes on the road for, like,

14:23

I was just there, my hurricane tour was amazing. Right? Amazing and great. Those are his favorite words, right?

14:30

Now, everybody recognizes the flaws in Obamacare. Everybody, including Democrats. Especially Donald Trump, who's been trying to get rid of it since he swore in office.

14:39

To say, get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He's fired. Sorry, I meant since he was sworn into office.

14:49

Now, Obamacare is the greatest act of larceny committed in American history.

14:54

It is straight up theft and it needs to be taken down. I mean, the Bible even speaks against Obamacare.

15:01

Yes, it does. It says in Exodus 20, verse 15, you shall not steal.

15:07

That's right. You can definitely applaud for that. You see, a biblical worldview recognizes that God, who is the sovereign, grants to individuals their rights over their private property.

15:19

And thus, in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, the commandment, you shall not steal.

15:25

You shall not steal gives to you guys, gives to all of us, the idea, the assumption always that there is a thing called private property.

15:34

That God, as the sovereign, gives me ownership over my property, whether it's land, whether it's money.

15:40

And what God gives to me is mine. And it's up to me what I want to do with it.

15:45

And no government has the right to simply take it from me via coercion. In the biblical worldview, there isn't a difference in terms of larceny and theft between the person who climbs over your wall in a black suit and a thing over his face and the judge who's wearing a black robe and signs something into law with a fancy pin.

16:06

Larceny is larceny in God's law. The Trump administration recognizes that and has been working hard to repeal

16:15

Obamacare. The problem is, is they're also trying to replace it. Replace it.

16:21

And that's where there's an issue. Government medical insurance for everyone shouldn't exist in the first place.

16:26

In fact, it didn't always exist anyways. Health insurance wasn't a thing until about the 1920s.

16:33

And even then, it wasn't popularized until the 1930s. And the fast food chain

16:38

McDonald's wasn't created until the 1950s. So nobody even needed the medical insurance until then.

16:46

Insurance was a helpful thing until the government slowly got their hands on it. And because once the government gets their hands on something and they get involved in That's right,

16:57

Bernie Sanders fans. That's called socialism. And it's theft. So many young Americans are in favor of the idea of socialism because they think that means they don't have to pay for their own medical insurance.

17:11

When in reality, young people do have to pay, but it's just not for them. It's for the people that can't pay for themselves.

17:18

The closer you get to socialism, the closer you get to the single -payer system, which is no surprise, that's what

17:25

Democrats really want anyways. Obamacare was just the flawed system to get them to that point.

17:32

Don't believe me? Then how come it cost $200 million to make the

17:38

Obamacare website and it didn't even work? I mean, MySpace is more functional and nobody even wants to go on it.

17:45

It only took three college students a few days to make a working Obamacare site because that's what happens when you don't work for the government.

17:54

You actually accomplish things. Which brings us up to a great point all on its own.

18:02

Why would you want the government to be in charge of your health when anytime they're in charge of anything, the results are generally terrible?

18:09

The United States Postal Service hasn't given a good experience to its customers since the time it came out with the

18:15

Elvis stamps. Those were good. Government workers don't have any reason to give you good customer service.

18:25

Good customer service is what you get with an incentive. An incentive is what you get with capitalism.

18:31

And you get capitalism because of the Bible. And capitalism is not the single -payer system.

18:38

Contrary to what it sounds like, the single -payer system is not single mothers paying for the system.

18:44

It's the government paying all of your medical bills. Except they're not actually paying for it.

18:50

You are. The government doesn't have any money of their own. It comes from us. You're just doing it in the form of taxation.

18:57

You see, each person, thank you, will pay much higher taxes in order to cover the expenses of your medical bills.

19:05

And for the young people that are healthy and young, you'll still have to pay the high taxes, but it won't be going to your need because you don't need it.

19:13

It'll go to the criminals in prison, illegal immigrants, anybody else who can get taken care of for free.

19:19

You see, that's what socialism does. It steals your money and it tells you what to do with the rest of your money.

19:26

The government should never have the right to tell you what to do. You see, I should have the legal right to smoke, eat ice cream, cut off my own arm, gorge myself on Taco Bell.

19:37

You see, that's self -governing. Granted, it's bad self -governing, but it's still self -governing.

19:45

You see, the idea of capitalism works because it's based upon thou shalt not steal private property.

19:52

You see, NASA was government funded, and it didn't get very far in technology. I mean, they did some things, but mostly they took inventions from privately funded companies.

20:03

So let's look at privately funded companies. Elon Musk, he's created his own space program for people to take trips into space.

20:12

And his company is already moving much faster than NASA ever has. Why? Because there's an actual reward.

20:19

Capitalism provides checks and balances on the depravity of man's heart. For example, if I create my own pizza shop, and I want to make the pizza as cheap as possible so I can profit more,

20:31

I can't use rotten ingredients. I mean, that causes people to get food poisoning, and they won't come back.

20:37

But if the government made you buy my pizza, whether you got food poisoning or not, who cares what ingredients

20:43

I put in it? In other words, Little Caesars is one socialist government away from being even more dangerous to your body.

20:51

You see, capitalism is when hospitals thrive. Socialism is when people literally die.

20:58

Clear, Chris, you've raised money, you have funds, you could pay for the transportation to the

21:05

United States, yeah? And you're prepared to do that. Yeah. The reason that the judges decided that that should not be the case is that the medical opinion is that this would be too stressful and too painful for your son.

21:21

Is that right? But that's what they're saying. We totally disagree with that. He's probably the most stable baby in there.

21:29

He's not in pain, he's not suffering, because if he was suffering and he was in pain, we wouldn't sit by his bed and watch him suffer.

21:37

So a child died because of the socialist medical program. And it wasn't just with this child.

21:44

Socialist medicine has what they call death panels, which is where the government rations medical supplies to certain people.

21:50

So if you're beyond a certain age or you're low in their priority, you wouldn't get the supplies or the services that you need to survive.

21:57

But, of course, we wouldn't do that in America, right? Actually, Obamacare has actual death panels included in the law under the term

22:06

Independent Advisory Board, known as IPAP. And although it hasn't technically been put into effect, it is technically legal.

22:15

So you see, we've got a real issue on our hands if we want to do something to change things. The question is, what can you do?

22:22

Well, get the government away from your medical care. Join Christian medical companies like Samaritan Ministries, where it gives you control and lets you help people directly.

22:31

You see, we need to give control back to the doctors who legally, as of right now, cannot give anyone free health services if they accept

22:39

Medicare and Medicaid. And we need to get back to the gospel, understanding that hospitals were created by the church.

22:47

I mean, that's just a fact. Christianity gave the world all these blessings of these institutions and hospitals.

22:54

I mean, they were run by compassionate people who actually cared for the widows and the orphans.

23:00

It was done from the heart. I mean, without the church, you wouldn't even have nurses. Now, if you don't believe the church had a part in health care, then answer me this.

23:10

Why did most hospitals' names start with Saint? Is it because they're fans of the football team?

23:17

I highly doubt it. Thank you guys for watching. Next week with Jeff Durbin. Stay with us.

23:22

We've got an important interview next. Don't go anywhere. Like and share the episode. We'll be right back, guys. Thank you.

23:37

Hey, guys.

23:58

So over the last couple of years, we've all had to face what my friend calls the greatest larceny ever perpetrated upon American people in history.

24:11

We call it Obamacare, and it is something that has ultimately been more destructive to the health care industry, really, than anything we've seen before this in American politics.

24:24

And so the question is, how do we handle something like this? How do you actually defeat a giant like Obamacare?

24:31

And so rather than just talking about the foundations, the theological foundations, the social implications of Obamacare, we thought let's provide something by way of actual help, something that can actually transform the way that we do health care in this country.

24:48

So we wanted to have on someone from Samaritan Ministries. His name is Anthony Hopp, and he's going to give us some instruction.

24:55

Anthony, welcome to Next Week, brother. Thank you for coming on the show. Thanks, Jeff. My pleasure. Absolutely. So, Anthony, tell us about Samaritan Ministries.

25:03

A lot of people don't know about you. I've been with you for a very, very long time. We recommend it to everybody, really at Apologia Church.

25:11

We recommend it to friends. We've talked about it a bunch. But what is Samaritan Ministries? Well, it's one of the bright spots in a pretty miserable landscape.

25:21

You know, there's not a shortage of frustration and complexity and general bleakness around health care, but health care sharing is one of the good things that's going on.

25:31

Essentially, it is a biblical non -insurance approach to health care. Think crowd funding for health care, where followers of Jesus Christ are able to put their faith in action, live out their faith in a very practical way by sharing one another's medical needs directly, person -to -person, household -to -household, without using any insurance at all.

25:51

And Samaritan members have been doing that since 1994. There are currently about 70 ,000 households or 230 ,000 individuals, and altogether that's about $25 million a month that goes from member -to -member for those medical expenses.

26:07

And probably the most significant piece to this is that the direct sharing allows for not just the sharing of the financial need, but also community and connection, because we're able to pray for one another, send cards and notes of encouragement, and stand with each other in one another's time of need.

26:23

It's a powerful thing. And I think one of the things when you look up Samaritan Ministries on Google, one of the first things that pops up is the statement, essentially, that this is about bearing one another's burdens.

26:36

And it's a compelling thing, Anthony. I've been with the Samaritan for a long time now, and one of the incredible experiences in being part of Samaritan is where you have a medical need, you submit that need, and you start receiving personal letters from Christians from all over the country that they don't just send you a check to supply for your needs, but they also write a letter to you or handwritten notes just telling you that they're praying for you, they're sending you scripture.

27:05

I mean, it really is a tremendous blessing. And it was interesting, one time I sent away for someone's need and wrote that I was praying for them, gave them a

27:12

Bible verse, and we got tweeted shortly after I sent it out. Somebody that's actually a fan of our show received a check from me for their medical need, which is pretty powerful.

27:24

Yeah. Yeah, those cards and notes often are the first thing that members talk about.

27:30

They could have a medical need that's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you'd think the first thing they would say is, my goodness, these strangers sent me money.

27:38

But it's not. It's the impact of brothers and sisters that we probably won't meet the sight of heaven standing with us.

27:47

That's what made my wife and I raving fans 20 years ago. We had a pretty significant medical expense, and we were thinking, is this going to actually work?

27:54

That's kind of the typical path is that somebody joins kind of tentatively. This is all new.

28:00

What's going to happen? Does it work? And then somebody has a medical need, and then you put it to the test.

28:06

You wait to see. And, of course, it works. We got all the money we needed in a timely way. But what struck me and my wife is, man, this is what the church is called to do.

28:16

And the sense of community we experienced in that moment was really powerful. You've been around,

28:22

Anthony, since 1994. So this isn't something that's just sort of come into existence, that hasn't been tested and shown to be true and valuable.

28:31

And so that's, I think, powerful testimony to the effectiveness of this ministry. But talk to us about what

28:37

I find is interesting, Anthony, is not only does it work in terms of Christians taking care of one another's needs, bearing each other's burdens, it's effective, it's essentially timely, but it's not technically insurance.

28:51

It's health care cost -sharing amongst believers. But what

28:57

I find interesting is that the monthly cost of supporting other believers ends up being less than some of the

29:05

Obamacare premiums typically are. And you also don't have the problem of, say,

29:12

I've got to pay $1 ,000 a month for my family, an insurance premium. And then

29:17

I also have to, you know, essentially spend $5 ,000 to $10 ,000 of deductible before things start kicking in.

29:23

There seems to be some tremendous benefits of just sharing the costs of health care with believers that ends up being actually cheaper than Obamacare.

29:32

It is. We have prospective members who say, I'm paying more now for my health care than I am my mortgage, and we can't do this.

29:40

Or we've got a somewhat affordable premium, but our deductible is so out of sight that we're bearing a lot of risk.

29:47

So, yeah, certainly while cost is not what usually drives a member to us, people join on principle.

29:54

Cost is certainly one of the notable benefits. Right now, the most any member will ever share is $4 .95

30:01

a month, but the monthly shares begin as low as $100 for a single, $200 for a couple, and $250 for a family.

30:09

And those share amounts are based on what level of membership somebody picks.

30:14

We have something called basic, which is brand new, and classic, what we've had for the last 23 years. And those essentially are differentiated by what we call an initial unshared amount, similar to a deductible, but for somebody in basic, they would agree to a little bit of a higher amount on the front end, $1 ,500 to be exact, whereas members of classic would be paying the first $300.

30:41

So when you think about those in terms of deductibles, there's no comparison. Now, there is a difference in that those initial unshared amounts are per medical need, not an annual amount the way that we think of a deductible.

30:55

But one final piece about these initial unshared amounts is that through reductions and negotiations with providers, a lot of times that $300 and $1 ,500 can disappear altogether.

31:06

Definitely, and you brought up a good point, Anthony, and that's in terms of principle. When my family decided to start with Samaritan Ministries, we were excited about the potential.

31:17

We were excited about this opportunity. The cost was lower, which was important to us.

31:23

Removing that idea of the deductible was compelling to me. But we decided to go with Samaritan on pure principle, biblical principle.

31:33

We know that if we're ever going to defeat what is essentially a socialist system, if we're ever going to move away from the idea of larceny as a good thing in society, taking from people, having goods and property taken away from us by the government through coercion, that we have to take the first step as a

31:52

Christian. So if I'm going to say things about the public school system or socialism as bad,

31:58

I can't participate in that system as a Christian, even though I'm one person. And someone may say, yeah, but what is your not participating going to do overall?

32:07

So we did that. We did that, Anthony. We started with Samaritan on principle. We wanted to participate in something that would be a godly and righteous way in terms of health care.

32:17

And so that's what got us into it. And we've been very, very impressed. And I want to say, Anthony, it's been really cool to watch even the growth of Samaritan in terms of numbers, but also in terms of how you guys handle the needs sharing.

32:32

You've recently or fairly recently added the ability to be able to essentially upload the receipts and the costs to your server, to your system via just taking a picture of the receipt, which is actually sort of taking that time down a bit in terms of getting the need covered.

32:50

So that's been a blessing. Right. Yeah, we are developing all the time some online tools for members.

32:57

So you can submit a need with your phone if you want to through electronic bill submission. In about a month or so, we'll be rolling out e -sharing, which will be convenient for a lot of members.

33:07

And yeah, absolutely. The principle aspect of this, Jeff, is so important because everybody's talking about how do we reform health care?

33:16

Well, we do it when we start thinking biblically about free markets and personal responsibility and true charity.

33:22

And charity doesn't mean taxing a group of people and redistributing it, even if it's in the name of health care.

33:27

And what we have with health care sharing, it's kind of the intersection of all three, of people taking personal responsibility for their own health care, directing it themselves.

33:36

There's both a responsibility to that, but also a liberty. And then they have free markets where they're able to go where they want and determine what kind of treatment they're going to receive.

33:49

There should never be a third party interfering or interloping. That's the family's decision. And then thirdly, true charity.

33:55

Samaritan members are able to voluntarily, they're not coerced, but they voluntarily come together around mutually held beliefs and values and stand with each other.

34:06

That's true. And you know what's, I think, powerful, Anthony, as well, is that a look at history displays that Christianity has been involved in, the biblical worldview.

34:17

The church has been involved in these tremendous advances in history, whether in terms of creating a civilization.

34:23

I mean, the West itself was created through the biblical worldview, although we're losing a lot of that now. Modern science, educational institutions, whether you want to talk about the famous ones like Yale and Harvard and the famous institutions over in England that we have,

34:40

Cambridge, Oxford, but also the health system in the first place in terms of hospitals.

34:47

We've been sort of on the front lines of advancement in the world of bringing blessing and goodness to the world.

34:53

But what's amazing is as we've stepped away as the church, away from that task of beautifying the world and cultivating the world and blessing people, sort of the secular world sort of steps into that void.

35:03

Government takes over and they blow it up. And what I see Samaritan as,

35:09

Anthony, is a truly Christian and biblical worldview response to the health care crisis that we have before us in our nation.

35:18

Exactly. It really is loving God and loving our neighbor, being obedient to his word to take care of each other.

35:26

In the New Testament, there's close to 100 references to one another, and about half of those are commands.

35:31

And so whether it's Galatians 6 -2 or Philippians 2, the second half of Romans 12, that's what we're called to do.

35:39

And so this is a way for us to do that practically. That's right. And so what's interesting is people might be asking the question, well, how does it work?

35:46

Well, I'll just say from my own experience, you have a major situation, a catastrophic event, something happens, we have to go to the emergency room, say.

35:54

We go to the emergency room and we basically tell them, we're with Samaritan Ministries, this will be paid back to you in cash, send us the bill.

36:02

And we get seen, they send us the bill, and then we submit the needs to the believers across the country. They send us checks and we pay the hospital.

36:10

It's really been a pretty simple process. You mentioned something, though, Anthony, one more thing that you're adding to the entire system.

36:16

Did you mention e -sharing that's coming soon in terms of what's that look like? Correct.

36:22

Currently, members send their checks by or send their monthly share by writing out a check. So in about a month or so, we will open up the opportunity to send that share electronically through mail.

36:34

Yes. Yes. Eventually other means. So that will enable us to get shares sent quicker, but also even the community aspect will still be preserved because the main theme here is the connection of members to members.

36:50

So whether that happens in analog form of writing an archaic check or sending it electronically, it accomplishes the same thing.

36:58

So, again, this is leveraging the technology that exists so people can experience community in whatever way they're accustomed to.

37:06

Well, I appreciate it. And I want to tell you, Anthony, that you officially win today. My executive producer,

37:12

Marcus Pittman, and myself, we're going to ask you, what's up with the old technology? No one wants to send mail anymore.

37:19

And so you fixed that problem. So you win. All right. All right. So that makes it even better.

37:25

So, Anthony, help us. Where can people go to learn more about Samaritan Ministries? How can people get connected with you?

37:31

Google Samaritan Ministries, not Samaritan's Purse, but Samaritan Ministries, or go to SamaritanMinistries .org.

37:38

We can also be reached toll free. The number is on our Web site, but it's 877 -764 -2426.

37:45

And I'll highlight the fact that we have a good number of staff who are ready and patient to walk through, with prospective members, what health care sharing looks like.

37:56

We recognize this is a whole different paradigm. It's scary. It's different. And so these men and women do a fantastic job, not just of dispensing information, but helping allay concerns.

38:09

I know the same concerns my wife and I had 20 years ago. There's also a lot of good videos on our

38:14

Web site that highlight individual member stories. How did they transition from health insurance to health care sharing?

38:21

And how did they interact with the provider? Because that's usually something that people have concern about. What happens when I go into the hospital?

38:28

And they deal with that in all those videos as well, as well as how the process actually worked for them.

38:33

Did they receive the money on time? How impactful were the notes and cards? So our

38:38

Web site, SamaritanMinistries .org, has a treasure trove of information. Amazing.

38:44

Anthony, one last question I have for you before we let you go today. Obamacare being introduced has just wrecked the entire health care industry and wrecked a lot of families.

38:55

It wrecked their finances. You can keep your doctor. No, you can't. Premiums are going to go down or they'll be the same.

39:02

That's not true. Some people's premiums have quadrupled. It's wrecked the health care industry and wrecked a lot of families and their health care needs.

39:11

But one of the things that has been introduced is that if I don't participate in Obamacare, I pay a penalty tax at the end of the year.

39:21

So what I found compelling is the fact that if you are with Samaritan Ministries, that penalty has not applied, at least up to this point.

39:28

Can you talk just briefly about that? Yeah. In the 23 years we've existed, the

39:34

Lord has done miracles in our midst, and one of those miracles was inserting an exemption in the law that states if you're part of a health care -sharing ministry like Samaritan, then you're not required to purchase insurance and, therefore, not subject to the penalty or tax or fine or whatever it's referred to as.

39:51

And so we're very grateful that that was included in there. Our stance was, here is a group of people who have, prior to any of this

39:59

Affordable Care Act, have been taking care of each other and are not a burden on the system, so please let us continue to do what we've been doing.

40:06

And by God's grace, that's exactly what happened. And so we point out to people because the

40:12

Affordable Care Act brought awareness to health care sharing, but this existed long before. It wasn't reactionary to the

40:18

Affordable Care Act, but, nonetheless, God intervened and that exemption was there. So going forward, depending on whatever legislation is proposed or ultimately gets voted on, we are hoping and trusting that health care -sharing ministries will be treated in a favorable fashion.

40:35

And so we have a whole public policy team that watches things very carefully and is proactive, but ultimately we realize that it's the

40:43

Lord who has brought protection this far and will continue to do so. Not today,

40:49

Satan. Not today. That's right. All right, guys, Anthony Hoff, Samaritan Ministries.

40:54

Make sure you guys check it out. Anthony, thank you for joining us today. We'll be right here next week. All right, guys, stay with us. We'll be right back, guys.

41:00

Don't go anywhere. Apologia All Access is

41:15

Apologia Church's opportunity to have a farther reach into the world with our proclamation of the gospel, our defense of the gospel, our engagement of the culture.

41:24

And I pray, God, today that you would move in a mighty way, Lord God, to open the eyes and hearts of these people and draw them to your

41:31

Son. So again, it's back to who do we believe, Jesus or Joseph? What it is is this.

41:37

People who are fans of our ministry, who learn from our materials, they partner with us.

41:43

They join together with Apologia Church. They donate $7 .95 a month. And when they donate, they participate with us in ministry, making all of this possible.

41:52

The studio, our reach into the world, our evangelism, our special television show, our videos, everything that we do to communicate the gospel around the world.

42:00

We began to go across the island and we saw the cults everywhere. There's a real opportunity to bring the gospel in a powerful way here.

42:11

Ultimately, our goal is to create television programming that glorifies Christ and its qualities but can also engage the culture in its conversation.

42:22

If I'm a Christian, if I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, it stays with me in all areas of my life.

42:28

That means if I'm in business, if I'm in politics, it stays with me. I like you a lot.

42:35

With Apologia TV and After Show, we have guests like John Frame, Dr. James White, Ken Ham, and Denny Burke with more guests added every week.

42:44

And we've discussed relevant news, information, and issues. We cover a wide breadth of topics, everything from abortion to apologetics, to cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, to Biblical theology and Reformed theology.

43:01

For new, predestined, justified, glorified links forged by God in this golden chain.

43:08

So when you sign up for All Access, you get the weekly television show, the After Show, you get

43:14

Apologia Academy and all the advanced theological training, and you make all the additional content that we put out possible.

43:22

There is evil and suffering in the world. So what? Nothing is ultimately evil in an atheistic worldview.

43:29

So what? So the content we're able to put out to reach into the world with the gospel is made possible by you, our

43:36

All Access partners. Thank you guys to our live studio audience and of course thank you to all of you guys who are supporting us and watching us across social media.

43:54

We wanted of course to end the show today as always pointing everyone to EndAbortionNow .com and actually answering some arguments today, right?

44:03

So I'll just say quickly, we had a save last week. Yes, yes we did. Yeah, at our local Tempe location, it was a young woman, mid, early 20s, heard us preaching from outside, was going in and out, listening to us, standing and watching us, and then finally left, pulled out in the driveway, a couple of our people were there to intercept and talk with her, and she ended up going to a local pregnancy center and getting resources to help her.

44:26

She was 14 weeks, which was precisely how far along my wife is at this point with our second child.

44:31

So it was extra resonating to see how she was reacting to us being there, how she was, hopefully the

44:39

Word of God was beginning to take hold over her heart as we were preaching to her and offering her help. So, powerful stuff.

44:44

That's awesome. So for those of you guys that are new to Next Week with Jeff Durbin, Apology of Church, Apology of Studios, we've been actively involved in trying to speak prophetically to our culture with the

44:55

Word of God in the area of abortion. We've been going out to the abortion mills locally and have saved upwards of 100 babies at this point.

45:03

We don't even ultimately know the true number. We've gotten to hold some of these babies in our arms. We're speaking to our local legislatures across the country.

45:12

You can do it all yourselves by just going to endabortionnow .com. You can click on the legislator tab and speak directly to your local legislator.

45:19

It's a service that we didn't actually budget for or plan for, but we ended up putting into the website so you can have direct communication calling for an immediate end to abortion in your state and your local community.

45:31

You can also get the free training and free resources. And as of right now, because of all the content and because of a show like this and your show,

45:40

This Is Why, how many churches do we have connected with End Abortion Now? A little over 260 have registered with us.

45:48

Yeah, it's awesome. We're still rounding up everyone, making sure we didn't miss anyone, getting everyone their materials.

45:54

But just to have that many that have initially said, we're with you guys, we want to fight this alongside of you, we're ready to receive materials, we're ready to get help, we're ready to preach the gospel and save children and help mothers and fathers.

46:05

That's very encouraging. It's a powerful thing. So this year we've been able to launch the website, give out free training, free resources.

46:10

We actually spent twice what we were planning to spend in terms of sending out kits for free to churches, which we were happy to do.

46:17

It's a really good problem to have to spend double your budget on making sure churches are equipped.

46:23

Yeah, it was a process. That's right. We had a conference this year with over 100 churches represented, pastors and leaders we were able to pay for to come out.

46:32

We've had millions and millions of views on the content that we've put out this past year. So God's been doing tremendous things.

46:38

We were able to raise, by God's grace and through your support, about $250 ,000 to do this year's mission.

46:46

If you put that together with the churches that are now involved, it's less than $1 ,000 a church. Right. And if you put it with just each church saving 10 children, that's about $200 a life.

46:57

Yeah, and we have churches that have seen up to 25 saved as a result of being partnered with this kind of ministry.

47:04

They were at the conference. They took it upon themselves, and now they're seeing fruit of their ministry and likewise organizing support so that they can have full -time missionaries on the sidewalk there.

47:13

That's right. That's amazing. It is amazing. All right, praise God. So we're going to do about just a quick two minutes here and answer a very popular sort of pop culture argument right now.

47:24

It's not actually new. It's something that atheists were presenting to me about five years ago.

47:30

And so introduce everybody to this thing that everybody's talking about. It's an argument about embryos, 1 ,000 embryos versus…

47:37

Right. Just to set the stage, there's a gentleman named Patrick Tomlinson. He's a comedian, a sci -fi writer.

47:43

He's a blogger. And a couple days ago on Twitter, I mean, as far as right now where it's at, that's at about 30 ,000 retweets.

47:51

So it's had a lot of activity by nonbelievers and those from the pro -life community interacting. But he basically presents a scenario in which he says, this is the irrefutable argument that really trips up pro -lifers, right?

48:05

They don't have an answer for this dilemma. So here it is. He presents it. And it's basically, he calls us the life at conception crowd, as if we're just a small group of people who hold to biology and science.

48:19

So the life at conception crowd would include every biological textbook in the last 30 years. Right, yeah. The life at conception crowd.

48:26

Yeah, yeah. That's how it begins. So he presents a scenario in which you have, you know, you're in a fertility clinic and, you know, the fumes are rising because the place is on fire, right?

48:37

And you have the opportunity before you to save either 1 ,000 viable embryos that are in one room or you have the chance to save a handful of small children.

48:48

Or, I'm sorry, one child is a five -year -old in the other room. Right. So which do you choose?

48:54

And then he claims that by choosing the child, pro -lifers are somehow biased or people who, you know, claim that life begins at conception, they don't actually believe that.

49:04

Right. It's not a true claim that they make. And he says, so expose them in their hypocrisy when they latch onto that.

49:10

Expose them, and then when they do, you slap that big old pink P for patriarchy on them is what he says.

49:17

So, yeah, so he says specifically, and I just want to make sure I don't misrepresent you, Patrick, we're just lying in order to manipulate and control women.

49:25

So that's kind of the common argument that you hear from especially those that are high up in the pro -choice community right now, people like Dr.

49:32

Willie Parker, that this has somehow been a motion of progress for women's rights and feminism over the past few decades of them making progress in the area of abortion is seen as a women's rights issue, and they see any detraction from that as going back and overthrowing the progress, right?

49:48

So those people are a part of the patriarchy. Essentially, they're just trying to stop all the progress that's been made and manipulate and control women, kind of making their own health care decisions and having bodily autonomy control over their own body.

50:01

Yeah. These are the kinds of things we hear all the time outside the abortion club. Yeah, it's not new. Right. And what it amounts to is essentially a motion -driven argumentation that never really provides any meaningful argumentation against the quote -unquote pro -life position or the abolitionist position.

50:16

It's just an emotion -based argument. Right. When Christians hear it, they go, uh -oh.

50:22

Right. Now what? Because I want to save both. Right. Both communities, right? Yeah. So let's just talk quickly about the science.

50:29

Okay. Now, from the biblical perspective, of course, the biblical worldview says that every human being, whatever color you are, whatever size you are, whatever stage of development you are, every human being is imago dei, is in the image of God, and is worthy of value, dignity, respect, and love.

50:45

That's right. By virtue of the fact that you're made in the image of God. So the biblical worldview doesn't do what, say, the humanist perspective would do, or just a wicked perspective and say, this person might look like a human, but they're not really fully human, right?

50:58

Right. Whether that's for, say, a black person or a Jewish person, or, in the case of the modern, the unborn baby in the womb.

51:04

Yeah. The biblical worldview says it's human, it's image of God, it is worthy of value, dignity, respect.

51:10

Now, biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, this argument provides no answer. Right. To the position.

51:16

Because what you have with developing human beings, no matter how small they are, the thousand that are there, is you have what is human by nature.

51:26

Right. At that point, we're only talking about differences in size, how far developed they are, where they're located.

51:32

Right. And then, of course, how dependent they are. That's right. That's right. So from a biological, a scientific perspective, if Patrick would like to go that direction, what you have with a human being at conception is a human being at conception.

51:45

All the biological components of a human being are there, they're human by nature. And so this argument being presented doesn't actually offer anything by way of meaningful argumentation.

51:55

What you're saying is, it can be said in a different way. You can say, if I was at the mall and I had the opportunity to save a thousand adults or two children over here, which one, what would

52:08

I save? Well, yes, you've presented with me, you presented me a catastrophic dilemma.

52:13

Right. What can I rescue in terms of human beings? Now, my answer to Patrick would essentially be this.

52:19

I'll save the thousand humans. Right. Over the one. If you really want to present a catastrophic dilemma,

52:25

I'll say, well then, if that's what you're going to give me, I'm going to save the most rather than the smaller amount. But it provides ultimately nothing meaningful in terms of the debate over abortion.

52:35

Right. And Patrick himself, just if you take a look at his Twitter feed, he seems to be very antagonistic against the

52:41

God of the Bible. Right. Biblical revelation ultimately too. So first question for Patrick would be, how do you account for dignity, value, and worth in any measure, in any degree for a human being apart from the

52:53

God of Scripture? That's right. You can't do it. So foundationally, you can't do it. That's right. First of all. So that's the first challenge that he would have to climb over in order to even have a seat at the table.

53:01

That's right. That is a good point, is that presenting the emotions here, presenting the argumentation is pulling on the heartstrings of a

53:08

Christian because he can. Right. Because a Christian has a meaningful worldview to make sense of the dilemma.

53:14

I want to save it all because it's all image of God. Right. But from an unbeliever's perspective, say an atheist's perspective, all that is is just protoplasm sitting in a tank somewhere.

53:23

And that five -year -old is just developing protoplasm himself. My answer would be, who cares about any of it?

53:28

Right. From an atheistic perspective. But if you want to pull on the heartstrings of a Christian, you need to step into my worldview where human beings actually have value and dignity at all.

53:38

But it's important just to suggest if this argumentation is coming your way, that this provides nothing to the argument for abortion.

53:46

All it does is deliver a catastrophic dilemma that pulls on the emotions. It's more like a person saying, hey, if you were a husband and your car was going off a cliff, your wife and baby are inside, you only have a chance to save one of them, which one do you save?

54:03

Right. You see, it's provided nothing by way of argumentation. I have two things in there that are supremely valuable.

54:09

I want to save them both. And you're giving me a tough way, a tough spot right now. I'd like to save them both.

54:15

But this provides nothing by way of meaningful argumentation. Right. And that's definitely not the choice that the woman's making who's sitting inside the abortion clinic.

54:23

Right. The abortion clinic, it's kill my baby or don't kill my baby. Let my baby live. Right. And that's why we're standing outside calling out to them, telling them what

54:31

God commands. Right. Don't murder your child. That's right. Please, we'll help you preach the gospel.

54:36

But that's not the choice that the woman's making inside the clinic is the decision between this child and this child. It's this life inside of her, alive, by nature human, imago dei, do

54:48

I kill it? Right. That's right. All right, guys. So Zach Conover, Director of Communications at End Abortion Now.

54:54

You guys can get connected with Zach and actually talk to him directly by going to endabortionnow .com. Get connected.

55:00

This past year has been amazing. We're actually excited about next year. We've been able to accomplish now this year more than we actually had set out to do.

55:09

And so we're blessed by that. We're humbled by that. And we're grateful for all of you guys that have been praying for us and have given toward this work.

55:15

We say thank you to God and thank you to you all. So endabortionnow .com, guys. Don't forget to join us next week right here on Next Week with Jeff Durbin.

55:22

Don't forget to like and share the episode. Thank you guys so very much. We'll see you guys next week. We'll see you next week.