About Church Health Plans

Church benefits boards and church associations offer health benefits to church clergy and lay workers through church health plans. The Church Alliance works with member organizations, which provide consistent, quality health care plans for participants.

Church group health care plans generally operate within the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA framework. Unlike health care sharing ministries, church group health plans are generally regulated consistently with other corporate employee benefit plans, with some discrete exemptions to reflect their unique nature.

Why church health care plans matter so much to pastors, lay workers, and their families

Due to the nature of church health plans, there are a variety of advantages to offering these benefits through denominational benefits organizations, including:

Itinerant clergy families have the comfort and security of career-long, portable, comprehensive medical coverage.
"Economies of scale" provide lower costs to individual congregations and members of the clergy compared to the cost of similar coverage through the small group or individual insurance markets.
Averaging of contribution rates in some denominations provides an opportunity for the larger and more financially secure urban and suburban congregations to more effectively support smaller and economically challenged congregations in rural and underprivileged areas.
Nationwide provider networks bring equitable access to rural and urban clergy and congregational employees, sometimes in situations a secular, for-profit insurer would not cover.
Plans developed reflect their denomination’s belief system.
Benefits are designed for the long-term, investing in well-being, including mental health, and in prevention of chronic conditions. This is especially important for workers who often spend a career in service.