ELCA Pension Board Sets 1998 Health Plans' Rates

ELCA PENSION BOARD SETS 1998 HEALTH PLANS' RATES

Trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Board of Pensions
unanimously
recommended that there be no increase in contribution rates for non-retired
members in 1998. This
means the percentage of salary that congregations contribute toward members'
pension, medical,
survivor and disability plans will stay the same as 1997.  With salary
increases the overall increase in
contribution will be about 3 percent.  The action was taken at the trustees'
quarterly meeting July
31-Aug. 1 in Minneapolis.  Currently rates range from 7.8 percent of salary
for member-only health
coverage to 17.6 percent for a member, spouse and children.  Each rate has a
minimum and a
maximum dollar amount, which in effect provides subsidy to congregations
with
lower-compensated pastors and lay employees.  The trustees recommended a
contribution rate
increase of 13.7 percent -- from $102 to $116 a month -- for ELCA plan
retirees primarily because of
a sharp increase in prescription drug costs.  The survivor and disability
plans would stay at the
combined rate of 2.2 percent of salary.  In other action, the pension board
trustees voted to
expand managed care health programs on Jan. 1, 1999, into areas of Iowa,
Minnesota, North
Dakota and Wisconsin not currently covered under the Aetna managed care
program.  The board's
benefits committee recommended contracting with several Blue Cross/Blue
Shield organizations in
the area for these new managed care areas, which would include some 1,800
new plan members and
their families.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html