Richard and Jaime Wilson didn't have health insurance when the second of their three children was born in 2011, so the couple had to come up with $13,000 in cash to cover the delivery.

But several months later, when the couple had moved to Pittsburgh from North Carolina, checks from people across the country started arriving in the mail.

Accompanying the checks, which eventually added up to $13,000, were letters and cards letting the Wilsons know they were in the donors' prayers.

It was no miracle, but religion and faith played a part.

The Wilsons, who are both 37 and live in McKees Rocks, belong to Samaritan Healthcare Ministries, a Peoria, Ill.-based Christian organization in which members agree to contribute toward each other's medical bills.

Health care sharing ministries are an organized way of passing the hat after church, said James Lansberry, executive vice president of Samaritan. With about 140,000 members, Samaritan is among the largest of such groups in the country.

Christian sharing ministries are experiencing a spike in membership as people look for alternatives to government-mandated health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act, which was passed in 2010.

There are three national ministries that have about 425,000 members, said Joel Noble, vice president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, a Washington, Ill.-based advocacy group.

Small church-based ministries add another 25,000 members, bringing total membership this year to about 450,000, he said. That's more than double the 200,000 total ministry members in 2013.

Health law exemption

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Health care ministries rely on community to share costs