Continued progress toward a new Brotherhood Health Plan

The regional conference annual meetings provided opportunity for a church-wide discussion about re-introducing a BIC Brotherhood Health Plan. And although the conversations were a bit short on specifics, there was widespread agreement that this is an idea well worth pursuing.

With that encouragement, we are presently gathering census information from U.S. churches, including age, gender, and number of dependent family members of pastors and other persons employed by BIC congregation. The collection process is almost complete in three of the six U.S. conferences, and good progress is being made in the others. When we have the census facts in hand (by the end of the summer, if all goes as planned), we will be in a position to approach prospective insurance providers for rate quotes.

But facts alone are not enough to assure our success with a denomination-based health insurance plan.

As has been mentioned previously in Momentum, the lesson learned from our experience with a church-wide health insurance program is this: whatever we agree upon will need to be mandatory (with the exception of persons who are employed part-time and outside spousal coverage). At the same time, we know that a one-size-must-fit-all approach will not be well received. Nor will such an approach serve our churches well when we consider that nearly two-thirds of our congregations have less than 100 members. Small churches have a particularly difficult time paying premiums for health insurance for their pastors and families. Therefore, we will ask prospective insurance providers to come back to us with plans that help us address the diversity of our denomination.

Leadership Council welcomes input and suggestions throughout the study process. Achieving a successful outcome in the face of escalating rates will require the best thinking of many people from across the church.

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