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VOL. 13, NO. 20

Church giving continues rise

• Reporting to the conference Council on Finance and Administration Sept. 25, chief financial officer and treasurer, the Rev. Jim Knowles-Tuell, said that apportionment income continues to be significantly improved over last years record year-to-date.
• Percentage wise, we have received 56.1 percent compared to 54.2 percent last year, Knowles-Tuell said. This represents an actual dollar increase of $955,000.

Conference eyes insurance hike

by ERIK ALSGAARD UMCONNECTION STAFF

Dramatic increases in health insurance costs loom on the churchs horizon, conference leaders learned at a recent Council on Finance and Administration meeting.

A 12 percent increase in the cost of health insurance premiums is coming to local churches in 2003, according to the Rev. Dan Wright, chairman of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Board of Pensions and Health Benefits. It could have been more, Wright said at the Sept. 25 meeting.

Mercer (a consulting firm paid by the conference to gather information on health-care costs) projected a 39 to 47 percent increase, he said, while also noting that Mercer tends to project higher increases to avoid any surprises. We just cant pass along that size of an increase.

Carole Chaloner Silberhorn, director of pensions and health benefits for the conference, said that if the increase is more than 12 percent, reserve funds will be used to cover the difference. However, we cant keep doing that forever, she said.

The conference Board of Pensions and Health Benefits currently has the authority to maintain and administer a reserve fund for future retiree medical expenses. As of Aug. 31, the fund totaled $10.6 million.

In 2001, while with New England Financial, premiums and flex paid by churches through apportionments and direct billing totaled $5.6 million. The conference paid out $4.9 million in claims, along with $737,000 in administrative fees.

It will be easier in the future, Silberhorn noted, to get a handle on projected increases because the conference will have been with CIGNA longer. The Baltimore-Washington Conference switched from New England Financial to CIGNA Jan. 1. Were in transition, she said. The medical subcommittee will be meeting on a regular basis to keep on top of this issue.

Wright, pastor of the Davis Memorial-McKendree Charge in Cumberland, was also in the insurance business for 30 years. He has chaired the pensions and health benefits board since July. Twelve percent is nothing, he said of the increase, Its peanuts in todays market. Were in a situation where we have to tend to the problem. We cant wait for the future.

One item on the table is paying full health care premiums for retired clergy. The conference currently pays for premiums for retirees in certain plans. The committee will begin to look at any changes needed for possible action at the 2003 Annual Conference. Retirees may be required to pay a portion of their health care premiums to keep all the parts of their current plan.

Our coverage is so rich compared to the average employer that its catching up to us, said Wright. Ninety to 95 percent of employers out there dont provide as many benefits, he said.

Wright noted that health care costs grew seven times faster in 2001 than the overall economy in the United States. Drug costs have the most dramatic impact on Baltimore-Washington Conference costs, he said. Hospital costs eclipsed drugs as the leading factor in the recent increase.