Title: ELCA Pension Board Sets 1998 Health Plans' Rates ELCA NEWS SERVICE NEWS BRIEF August 8, 1997 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 [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html