Smaller churches may drop coverage once health insurance changes take effect
August 12, 2013
Leaders of the United Methodist Church [UMC] are expressing concern that many smaller churches will drop insurance coverage when additional changes to health insurance law take effect next year, according to a Religion News Service report.
The Affordable Care Act exempts employees with fewer than 50 workers from the mandate to provide health insurance.
“The concern is that the church plans won’t be viable if everyone who can get a tax credit leaves and goes to the state exchange,” said Timothy Jost, who teaches at the Washington and Lee School of Law.
“We cannot estimate how widespread this would be, but given the income demographics of the UMC workforce, it could be substantial,” said a spokeswoman for the UMC’s General Board of Pension and Health Benefits.
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Aug. 12, 2013 12:08 PM ET USA
During pre-theology one of my classes visited other Christian denominations. Over a decade ago, the Mehodist "leader" said they could no longer staff small churches becuase the cost of family health insurance was too great. This whole article is moot because none of the churches mentioned had insurance because they could not afford the premium under the "old" model.
