Member Review: Tim Greeson

A freelance technical director and event manager in New York City for more than 25 years, Tim Greeson discovered Liberty HealthShare in 2017.

Greeson was nervous about how healthsharing would work for him.

“It was something I never heard of before,” he said. “I was like, well, let me try it because I don't want to keep spending the kind of money I was on insurance. I'm staying healthy and this insurance just keeps going up. I needed to try something different.”

It wasn’t long before Greeson experienced the power of Liberty HealthShare’s sharing community when he suffered a kidney stone.

“I had one before so I kind of knew the symptoms as they were beginning,” he recalled. “I called an Uber and went the 15 blocks to the emergency room. I went in and said ‘Hey, I’m having a kidney stone. It will hit me at any moment. You need to get me back there.’ I didn’t want to be sitting in the waiting room and have it hit me. I even knew what medication I needed.”

The medical team “was pretty good about it,” Greeson said. “Long story short, they did a CT scan and saw that it was a fairly large kidney stone. They spent the next several hours debating whether to do surgery.”

Thankfully, surgery wasn’t necessary.

“Because of the CT scan, the bill was like $11,000. I paid my $1,000 AUA and Liberty HealthShare members shared into everything else. That’s when I realized, OK, this is cool. It’s a really good situation,” he remarked.

More than just receiving support for his eligible medical expenses, the foundation of the healthsharing model is something that appeals to Greeson. “Nobody is making money off this. It’s just a service. I like that idea. I promised to live a certain kind of lifestyle, no smoking and staying as healthy as possible. It feels very Christian to me and that’s a good thing.”

Greeson remained a member until the Covid pandemic shut down the meeting industry in New York and with it, his income.

“I was unemployed and uninsured and was able to go on Medicaid. I was able to do some video editing jobs from home, but my industry was non-existent. I didn’t leave my apartment much at all. I would go to Times Square and take pictures of what looked like a ghost town at noon. There was no one there, no traffic, nothing. It was eerie.”

Greeson remained on Medicaid until he turned 65 and transitioned to Medicare. He came back to Liberty HealthShare as a member of Liberty Assist, the ministry’s sharing program designed for seniors with Medicare Parts A and B.

Another healthcare change is in the works for Greeson, as he is moving to a Medicare Advantage plan. “I’m healthy so I want to check it out. It has a little bit of dental and some other things with low co-pays,” he said, noting that his business still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels as some of the companies he worked with went out of business. “If I don’t like it or it doesn’t work out, I’ll switch back to regular Medicare and come back to Liberty Assist.

“I’ve been very happy with Liberty HealthShare. Had it not been for COVID and had Medicaid not been an option, I would have stayed with a member. I felt very secure that as long as I was sending in my monthly share that the Liberty HealthShare community would be there for me.”