A magazine, not a brochure
Health Share Journal exists because the health-sharing conversation is still written like marketing. This is the first letter: what we will print, what we will not, and why a sister comparison site exists at all.
Reviewed by Compliance review — pending · Regulatory and disclosure review
Published · updated · 6 min read
A health share is allowed to sound like insurance in conversation. It is not allowed to be insurance in law. Most pages on the internet collapse that distinction because collapsing it is how you sell a membership.
Why another publication?
Because the existing ones keep answering a question nobody asked — “which share should I join?” — before answering the one that matters: is a share the right instrument at all?
A magazine can sit with that question. A ranking table cannot. So we split the work. This site files the stories. Health Sharing Report keeps the scores, the methodology, and the comparison table.
What we will print
- What a guideline document actually says, including the exclusions marketing pages skip.
- What regulators have said in public — starting with the NAIC’s plain statement that these programs are not insurance.
- The arithmetic that goes the other way: subsidized Marketplace coverage, COBRA timing, an HSA that a share cannot legally sit under.
- Corrections, in public, with a date.
What we will not print
- A savings figure we cannot source.
- Language that treats a declined need as a “denied claim,” or a monthly share as a “premium,” as if the legal gap were a branding choice.
- A fabricated byline, testimonial, or reviewer credential.
- A lede written to move a quote form.
How to read the first issue
Start with what health sharing is if you need the vocabulary. Read what regulators actually say if you have already been told it is “just like insurance, but cheaper.” If you are deciding for a household, the Household and Money desks are the ones that will tell you to walk away.
The first issue is small on purpose. We would rather ship fewer stories that survive a guideline PDF than a corridor of pages that exist to rank.
A note on staffing
Several bylines on this masthead are still desks, not people. That is an editorial failure we are willing to show. It is not an invitation to invent a medical director. When a named editor or reviewer is seated, the slug stays and the name changes.
If you have a correction, write editorial@healthsharejournal.com.
Frequently asked questions
Is Health Share Journal a health share?
How is this different from Health Sharing Report?
Do you have a commercial relationship with a program?
Who is on the masthead?
Sources
Most platforms stop at the sale. ARYX runs the member.
ARYX builds health plan administration software — enrollment, premium billing, member lifecycle, and advisor commissions — for TPAs, FMOs, carriers, and health shares.
- CRM
- EnrollFlow
- AdvisorIQ
ARYX LLC publishes this site. ARYX sells software to health plans and is not a health share, an insurer, or an agency — nothing here is a plan you can enroll in.
Keep reading
Healthsharing basics
What is health sharing? A plain-language explainerHow medical cost sharing works, the vocabulary that matters, what regulators say about it, and the questions to ask before joining.
Trends
What regulators actually say about health sharesNAIC consumer guidance in plain English, what “not insurance” means for a bill, and why state notices exist.
Healthsharing basics
Is health sharing legitimate? What the record actually showsThe regulatory status of health sharing, the enforcement history worth knowing, and a concrete due-diligence checklist for evaluating a specific program.
Health sharing is not insurance. Programs are not legally required to pay medical expenses and do not have to provide Affordable Care Act protections. NAIC consumer guidance.
This article is education, not medical, legal, or tax advice. Program guidelines change — the controlling document is always the program’s current guidelines, not our summary. Found an error? Tell us.