Taking on Health Insurance

The mission, according to Tempte: Help working people make their money more powerful.

He said there was no reason to sit back and rely on the government for health care. He got the concept when he visited an IHS facility in Phoenix. He found that a lot of people stayed in Phoenix just because of health care availability.

Be in charge of your own life. You can move to different parts of the country and have low-cost insurance," he said.

The concept is neither a pyramid scheme, nor a scam, and it is not illegal as some state insurance commissioners have suggested, Tempte said. eSwarm is not acting as a broker, it is the go-between where people join, the number is calculated and eSwarm negotiates the best deal possible with an insurance provider.

John Tempte hopes young Native Americans take to eSwarm.

A full explanation of the program is available on the Web site. Questions are also answered. The Web site asks people to sign up and there is no obligation to go along with a plan once it's negotiated, Tempte said.

"With 50 million members it will be a deal large enough and the dollars will be enough for a company. We will look for a company that can place policies in all 50 states," Tempte said.

He said with 20 million people at $100 per-year profit any insurance company would want to take on that business.

With a large number, pre-existing health conditions will not be a factor when considering a pool of people. The premiums would be the same for everyone, Tempte said.

People can join eSwarm online. When negotiations with an insurance company are in progress the membership will be notified about the rate. If the majority doesn't agree, then it's back to the drawing board, increase the number of members and find a better premium.

No premiums will ever be paid to eSwarm, Tempte said.

"We have a big number of people who have joined," he said. He could not come up with an exact number. Some people who have joined already have health insurance, many are underinsured and a lot of the American Indian population is in that category, he said.