Keeping health care affordable: It’s up to us
ELCA Board of Pensions health plan architect, Brad Joern, explains why wellness is a key to more affordable health care.

Wellness is the new health care frontier, and our 2008 ELCA-primary health coverage is designed to help you lessen your health risks. I recently attended a conference where a speaker commented, "We've tried to contain health care costs every other way. Getting healthier is our last option." It's also, of course, our best option.

Currently, we offer you a traditional benefits package coupled with wellness benefits like ELCA NurseLine^SM and Mayo Clinic's EmbodyHealth. In 2008, we're breaking new ground — your health plan will pay you to take the health risk assessment and it will pay you to pursue health-improvement activities.

What's really changing here? Our respective roles. In the past, the ELCA plan, like other health insurance plans, simply paid your medical bills. Your role was to seek timely medical care; our role was to pay your claims. We'll continue to pay your claims, but now we're asking you to use the new health plan as a tool to improve and protect your health. Take the health risk assessment, get regular checkups and screenings, call ELCA NurseLine when you have medical questions, buy generic drugs when possible, use the home delivery option, choose in-network providers, and, yes, even call your EAP when you feel stressed.

The cost of health care is directly related to health status. Our success at keeping health care affordable requires all of us to take action to maintain or improve our health and well-being — even in the midst of disease. In the end, we all benefit, as individuals and as a community.

Take your Health Risk Assessment now...