Health Care Sharing Ministries are organizations in the United States in which Health Care Cost are shared among members who have a common ethical or religious belief.  A Health Care Sharing Ministry does not use actuaries, does not accept risk or make guarantees, and does not purchase reinsurance policies on behalf of its members.   These plans  are not  traditional health Insurance. Members of Health care Sharing ministries are exempt from the individual mandates of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The individual shared responsibility was repealed in December 2017, effective in 2019.  This means that members  of health care sharing ministries are not required to have insurance as outlined in the Affordable Care Act.  It is important to understand the details of these plans because Medical Underwriting is permitted  and these do have limits  on the benefits they provide.