Leadership: A word from Mennonite Church USA leaders

For the past two decades our church has been concerned about access to health care in the United States. Mennonite Church USA delegates approved six resolutions on health-care access between 1992 and 2009.

Our concerns are rooted in biblical concerns for both healing and social justice. Our 2005 Healthcare Access Statement said the following:

Because health is a gift from God and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), we seek to be better stewards of our health.

Because our life together in Christian community is a foretaste of the kingdom of God (John 13:34-35; Acts 2:37-47; 4:32-35; James 1:18-27), we commit ourselves to work toward adequate access to health care for all our brothers and sisters, including our pastors, in Mennonite Church USA.

Because health and healing are part of God’s mission to redeem brokenness in the world, we will work with diligence as stewards of the gospel to provide better health-care access for our neighbors.

Because the scriptural test of a just nation is how it treats its weakest members (Micah 6:8; Amos 5:24; Jeremiah 5:26-29), we will be clear and consistent advocates to policymakers on behalf of public health matters and access to health care for everyone.

A primary concern is for the estimated 50 million people under age 65 who aren’t covered by an employer-sponsored health plan and are uninsured. Many have medical conditions or lack financial resources.

In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It represents the most significant government expansion and regulatory overhaul of our nation’s health-care system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. This health-care reform aims to increase the number of people covered by health insurance and reduce health-care costs.

Many reform provisions affecting individuals become effective Jan. 1, 2014. What do they mean for church members and our neighbors? Here are the primary changes:

• Insurers will be prohibited from denying coverage due to existing medical conditions.
• People who don’t get insurance will be charged an annual penalty.
• In participating states, eligibility for Medicaid coverage will be expanded based on income.
• Health-care exchanges will be created to sell insurance to individuals who may receive subsidized coverage, depending on their income.
• Employers with more than 50 employees will be required to provide coverage to employees or pay penalties.
• It remains to be seen if health-care reform will be successful. Whether PPACA will lower costs is unknown. Here are other unknowns:
• Will church plans like our denomination’s Corinthian Plan qualify as an exchange that offers subsidies? Everence is working with the Church Alliance on this. The Corinthian Plan will continue to cover pastors and church workers in 2014.
• Will employers drop health-insurance benefits, especially those with fewer than 50 employees? These employees will be able to still access coverage on exchanges.
  Many things remain basically unchanged:
• Medicare and Medicare supplement coverage for older adults;
• partially self-insured health plans of many larger employers, including those administered by Everence and used by many church institutions, including The Corinthian Plan.

Our country has made many changes in health-care access and cost structure. Now it is taking a step to provide health-care access to those uninsured and to make coverage more affordable. Everence will help our members meet these changing insurance needs, including assistance for those with our individual and small group policies who are moving to new insurance plans.

Over 60 years ago, Everence began offering mutual aid plans so church members could help each other with medical costs. Over the years, church members changed how they accessed coverage, increasingly through employers, Medicare and individual policies. We changed our products and services to align with changing needs.

Our church has been concerned for over 20 years about the problems that exist in our health-care system. We are going along with the changes in our country, realizing they do not solve all the problems but hopefully move us forward in accomplishing better health-care access.

Larry Miller, Goshen, Ind., is CEO of Everence, an agency of Menno­nite Church USA.