PHILADELPHIA – The Board of Pensions is expected to release details this week of proposed revisions in the dues structure for its medical insurance plan. An initial proposal from the board, announced last fall, elicited a flash of criticism – and in response, the board announced in February that it would make revisions.
Those revisions are expected to be announced at the board’s March 7-9 meeting in Philadelphia.
The original timetable called for the board to vote on a new dues structure at this meeting. Instead, the board will consider a revised proposal this week and vote on it in June.
“From pastors to mid council staff to churches and other employers, we have heard many voices through many channels,” the board announcement said in February. “We want you to know that we are listening.”
The changes are being proposed in response to financial pressures. The board said it expected to incur a shortfall of about $28.6 million in 2014 if it didn’t act (although the February announcement said the projections at the end of 2012 were actually somewhat better than expected).
Much of the criticism centered around the impact the proposed changes would have on younger pastors with children – as those families would be expected to start sharing the cost of medical dues for partners and dependents. Currently, mandatory dues for plan members are 21 percent of effective salary – and that covers both the member and that person’s partner and children.
The original proposal, announced in October and referred to as “Dues Plus,” would have dropped the mandatory dues to 19 percent of effective salary. But it would have paid for only 65 percent of the cost of dues for partners and dependents – with the additional 35 percent of cost to be paid by the employer, the plan member, or a combination of the two.
The February announcement said the revised proposal expected to be made public this week will include a “more evolutionary, multi-year approach” to phasing in changes (the original proposal called for the Dues Plus plan to take effect in January 2014).
And the board said it would try to balance the need for cost-sharing with the financial stress that change could cause for pastors with lower salaries and serving small churches, and on younger pastors with children.
On March 8, the board also will introduce the search consultant it will use to find a new chief executive officer. The board’s two top leaders – president and chief executive officer Robert W. Maggs Jr. and executive vice-president and chief operating officer Francis E. Maloney – both have announced plans to retire in 2014.
