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Health Insurance

Discussion in '2000-02 Archive' started by BPM, Apr 22, 2002.

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  1. BPM

    BPM New Member

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    I am looking into the operation of the SBC annuity board health insurance program. My question is why is there a seemingly different set of rules for small Churches vs larger ones. This stemmed from my desire to have my wife leave her secular work and help me in Ministry but to do so we had to have health insurance, sorry the personal insurance program thru the annuity board will not accept anyone with less than perfect health and they will also not accept a certificate of credible coverage from my last insurer(that will get you new insurance with other forms of coverage) Now to make a long story short I visited an annuity board site on the web and read over the list of employment benefits offered, sadly any employee of the annuity board or any other SBC entity receives coverage (paid for by SBC funds) and they are able to use their credible coverage waiver to ensure acceptance but a Pastor of a SBC Church does not get the same privilage. This seemed unfair to me and when I contacted the ethics and religious liberties commission of the SBC and asked what they thought about this situation, all I received was the assurance that all employees of the SBC had the same insurance rates and requirements for coverage as the Pastors did but when I checked the annuity web site for verification I found that while anyone can view the requirements and rates offered to Pastors the rates and requirements for larger Churches and entities of the SBC are only viewable by authorized users.Why the secrecy? Does anyone have a view on this and does anyone have any information. I am not sure of the employment rules and regulations but I am sure of one thing,when Churches send in their donations that fund the employees of the SBC so they can have much needed insurance and those same Churches have a different set of rules so that in many cases their Pastor cannot qualify or afford this same coverage something is wrong in the SBC.
     
    #1 BPM, Apr 22, 2002
  2. SaggyWoman

    SaggyWoman Active Member

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    As someone who has used the Annuity Board insurance and retirement account, I will say the following things.

    1.) Under the convention insurance plan (where it is a group thing), I still had what was to me high deductibles, etc. And it was 80/20 after that. Kind of inhales.

    2.) Under the church plan, it is pretty much the same. Inhales.

    3.) At the church I now serve at, we have a new small group insurance policy for interested workers. It has a ten dollar copay, and 50 percent of the prescriptions.

    4.) Retirement has a little better plan, but they have been losing in the last three quarters, until the lsst one.
     
    #2 SaggyWoman, Apr 25, 2002
  3. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

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    I think the AB plans are not discriminatory as to size of church. Not sure what you mean by that. The retirment plan is unsurpassed, IMHO. But if you can get health insurance elsewhere, do it. If you have to go with AB, get the best you can get. It will cost you more, but the cheaper plans are not worth the money at all. But remember something a lot of folks don't seem to realize: pastors are viewed as self-employed, which makes our insurance risk & cost much higher than that of an employee, be it an employee at McDonald's or an AB employee. Anyone who has worked as SE in other professions realize this. There may be better plans out there, but AB does a good job at making plans available and affordable, which is rare for SE folks.

    A lot will depend on circumstances. If you're in a large area or are close to a major area, you'll have more options than if you're in a small, out of the way town. Again, the AB is not perfect, but it's the best we've got.

    [ April 25, 2002, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: TomVols ]
     
    #3 TomVols, Apr 25, 2002
  4. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

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    Saggy wrote:
    Who hasn't lost money lately :eek:
     
    #4 TomVols, Apr 25, 2002
  5. SaggyWoman

    SaggyWoman Active Member

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    Well, I guess everyone has lost some.

    I do like the Annuity plan, and am glad that the convention I was working for when I was younger had forsight to put money in for me. Now that I draw closer to that "old age" I am glad that the money is there.
     
    #5 SaggyWoman, Apr 26, 2002
  6. BPM

    BPM New Member

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    Tom I fianlly got the written word from the Annuity board today, they do discriminate. Basically here is my complaint. As a pastor of a small Church with only three employees I was excluded from the insurance due to health problems because the federal government allows the AB to use an underwriter on the small Church plan (allows not orders) on the other hand had my Church been large enough to employ ten workers and I was their Pastor (or janitor for that matter) I would be accepted into the plan regardless of health problems and my premium might be less, because the federal government doesn't allow them to underwrite the group level plan, my problem is that if they are promoting the churches as they claim why do they follow the letter of the law when it comes to disqualifing certain Pastors that they have sworn to help?
     
    #6 BPM, May 1, 2002
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