NT-NL Leaders:

Portico Benefit Services is the health and retirement benefits provider for the ELCA. The vast majority of our rostered leaders and many lay staff are enrolled in this service of our church. Over the years Portico has worked diligently to maintain a stable network of providers and also limit annual cost increases as much as possible. While many organizations have seen annual cost increases of 10% or more, Portico has averaged between 3-5%.

In our ever changing health care environment to continue to maintain a sustainable program Portico has engaged in an examination of benefits. As part of that change, as I hope you have been informed, the five current health benefit options will be replaced by four options.
The new options are organized into two sets: a copay option and a high-deductible option and within each set, the copay and high-deductible plans will share the same deductible amounts. You can learn more about this at https://porticobenefits.org or by reading the 2026 decision guide which is linked here.

The NT-NL Synod has for the past years recommended the Gold+ plan and has affirmed that for its employees. At our synod council meeting this month we affirmed that the synod will use the Select Co-pay 2000 plan as it is the most comparable to the Gold+ plan. What is most important is that our sponsoring congregations and employers work with your sponsored members to determine the right plan for you. The difference in annual cost of these plans is actually quite small so please do your research.

Finally, a reminder that sponsoring congregations and organizations must log into Employer Link and make a determination of your plan for 2026 between Oct 1-14, 2025. That will enable your employees to choose various options for them.

Benefits are an important part of the way that we compensate our ELCA rostered leaders and lay employees. Caring for our leaders health and well being is essential and Portico does this well. In past years I have witnessed congregations and leaders trying to “shop around” and find a better deal. In some cases they have, but often not. The portability of the Portico benefits and the low annual increases in cost have made Portico reliable. If you have questions please contact Portico directly.

In Christ,

Bishop Gronberg