wfn.org | UCC General Synod deliberates on health issues

[George Conklin <gconklin@wfn.org>]

United Church of Christ
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contact: Barbara Powell
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PROVIDENCE, RI - July 6 1999 - 
Synod deliberates on health issues
by William C. Winslow   
        If the country had heeded the 19th General Synod’s call for
governmentfunded universal health care, hundreds of UCC pastors and lay workers
today would be covered. That they aren’t is of major concern to this General
Synod.
        “The rubber hits the road, not on access, but on participation,” said
delegate Gerald Bersch of Fond du Lac, Wis., during this week’s General Synod. 

        Getting more people, especially young pastors and lay workers, into the
UCC Pension Boards’ administered health, dental and disability plan was the
goal of two resolutions to Synod.
        The two might have fattened the rolls, but they surely would have sunk
the financial ship. Voted down was a Florida Conference initiative calling for
open enrollment in the insurance plan. Joan Brannick, head of the UCC’s Pension
Boards, said that when they tried an experimental open enrollment dental plan,
claims soured. Based on that experience, she predicted members’ premiums would
shoot up 1012 percent if such a plan were enacted. Or, as one delegate said,
“You can’t expect to get health insurance the day after you’re diagnosed with
cancer.” 
        In the UCC, claims are paid out of members’ premiums. The healthy
assure
that the sick get the best care at the lowest cost. The rub is that a young
pastor’s first parish often can’t afford the premiums.
        The Vermont Conference’s resolution, as a justice issue, seemed to hold
out a better chance for passage and add more people to the rolls. Currently,
upon initial employment by the UCC, an individual has 90 days to sign up, no
questions asked. Vermont wanted to extend that grace period to anyone applying
at any time for a UCC job. That seemed fairer, but as Philip Mayher of the
Massachusetts Conference pointed out when the proposed action was being
scrutinized in committee, “It’s not the health plans’ problem; it’s the whole
church.”
        General Synod agreed and accepted an amended document calling for a
major educational campaign for 100 percent signup by conferences and local
churches of clergy and lay workers.
        In other healthrelated business, Synod asked the Pension Boards to
equalize benefits between mental and physical illness and called for an
aggressive campaign to help clergy with disabilities to find parish jobs.