BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: For many Americans, health insurance can be a major headache, or worse. Nearly 46 million people don't have any medical insurance at all.

Into this world have stepped several evangelical Christian organizations that provide private, voluntary sharing of health care costs. The programs can be controversial, but -- as Lucky Severson reports -- many beneficiaries say they are a godsend.

CARNA REITZ (Subscriber, Samaritan Ministries) (Reading Prayer Letter): Hi Dennis, I will be praying for you this month. Hope you are feeling good. May God bless you as you serve Christ our Lord.

LUCKY SEVERSON: Carna Reitz is reading a prayer letter from someone she doesn't know who also sent along money to help pay her husband's medical bills. Dennis was in the hospital 38 days receiving treatments for leukemia. The bills were piling up, but checks, like this one, kept coming in the mail.

DENNIS REITZ (Subscriber, Samaritan Ministries): According to the Bible, we are to be bearing one another's burdens, sharing each other's times of trouble in life, whatever that may be. And Samaritan Ministries was a way that allowed us to do that. So it was the concept of the program itself that attracted us initially, but then the cost was much less than what we were paying.

SEVERSON: Samaritan Ministries is one of several Christian health sharing plans gaining a toehold in what was once the exclusive territory of insurance companies. Only these are not insurance companies and there are no guarantees that subscribers' medical bills will be paid. Still, nonprofit health ministries have gathered tens of thousands of subscribers, as well as some critics. But you won't find any of those at the Reitz household in Remington, Virginia.

Mr. REITZ: I'd say it's exceeded our expectations. Because up to this point, in the medical incidents that we had, we have basically had nothing out of pocket to pay for this.

SEVERSON: The family gave up Blue Cross and Blue Shield nine years ago. They pay about a third as much for the Samaritan plan, $225 a month. Samaritan has covered two births, maternity care, and a cast for their daughter's broken leg.

Mr. REITZ: We were concerned about how it all functioned because we know it is not an insurance company, and yet we had the confidence, because there was other fellow Christians involved with it, that we would have it behind us to support us as well.

SEVERSON: Samaritan is different from other health sharing plans in that members send their monthly checks directly to other subscribers whose medical bills have been cleared by the home office.

WANDA (Christian Brotherhood Newsletter) (On Telephone): This is Wanda from Christian Brotherhood Newsletter.

SEVERSON: Most ministries operate in ways similar to the one called Christian Brotherhood Newsletter, which receives monthly dues, then sends the money directly to subscribers, who then pay their providers. Only contributions above and beyond the monthly dues are tax-deductible. Pastor Howard Russell is executive director of the Christian Brotherhood.

Pastor HOWARD RUSSELL (Executive Director, Christian Brotherhood Newsletter): Our purpose is to address the medical needs of the people who are members of this ministry and to do it in a way that brings a glory to God's name.

SEVERSON: Not everyone can join these plans.

Pastor RUSSELL: We require that they sign that they are Christians by living with a biblical lifestyle, which we consider the New Testament teachings.

SEVERSON: The biblical lifestyle includes no homosexual activity, no illicit drugs, and no extramarital affairs.

Mr. REITZ: They do ask that we all commit also to a healthy lifestyle.

SEVERSON (To Mr. Reitz): Such as?

Mr. REITZ: No tobacco use -- there would be allowance for some use of alcohol, but just at a very, you know, controlled level. Also in terms of the lifestyle -- no promiscuity, those kinds of things.

SEVERSON: Dennis and Carna and their five children are churchgoing Mennonites.

Ms. REITZ: Also they do ask that you go to church -- I believe it is three Sundays out of four or something. And the pastor needs to sign that we do attend.

SEVERSON: There are other restrictions. Most plans do not cover abortions, unless the mother's life is at risk. There's no HIV coverage, if it's acquired in a way contrary to Christian principles. Alternative treatments are often challenged, and many preexisting conditions are also not covered. Christian Brotherhood doesn't reimburse for routine doctor's visits or routine prescriptions. They cover only emergency treatments, hospital stays, and surgery. And there's a $125,000 maximum per illness benefit.

MILA KOFMAN (Associate Research Professor, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University): I think part of the reason their monthly contributions are so much lower is because they only cover healthy people.