A Health Benefits Solution Designed to Deliver Stability, Savings, and Long-Term Sustainability

Providing comprehensive, sustainable health benefits strengthens your mission and supports your team. Join a large, pooled health plan designed for faith-based organizations to reduce risk, stabilize rates, and keep quality care accessible.

The Challenge: Health Care Affordability is Becoming an Organizational Imperative

Health care costs continue to climb at rates that challenge even the most proactive organizations. According to PwC’s Behind the Numbers 2026 report, medical cost trends are projected to remain elevated, with expected 8.5 % growth in group health care costs and 7.5 % in individual markets through 2026, matching the highest levels seen in years.

What’s driving this sustained pressure?

• Medical inflation remains high across hospital services and other care categories, with costs climbing year after year.
• Pharmacy spending is intensifying, outpacing overall health care trend and adding significant strain to plan budgets.
• Behavioral health and utilization trends continue to grow, contributing to higher claims and greater complexity in care management.

These trends make health care affordability a strategic priority for organizations, not just a budgeting challenge. When costs rise consistently at this pace, many organizations feel pushed toward “quick fixes” — none of which sustainably balance quality care with financial stability.

Common “Quick Fixes” That Backfire

In the face of rising health care costs, many leadership teams resort to short-term tactics aimed at immediate budget relief, like limiting coverage options, shifting costs to employees, and raising deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.

These “quick fixes” are reactive — they treat symptoms instead of systemic cost drivers and can:

• Undermine talent attraction and retention
• Increase long-term health care volatility
• Shift risk instead of managing it strategically
• Distract leadership from mission-critical priorities

A more sustainable strategy considers pooled risk, collective purchasing power, and benefit design that supports both affordability, access, and better outcomes — linking financial stewardship with organizational health.

A Different Path Forward: Risk Pooling That Helps Stabilize Rates Year to Year

Thanks to your faith-based affiliation, your organization can join forces with more than 19,000 participants in a large, pooled health plan — reducing risk and helping create more predictable, stable rates.

Portico’s benefit structure isn’t just another insurance product — it’s a collective health plan powered by scale and shared risk:

• Strength in numbers: your organization joins thousands of others in a large participant pool, creating substantial buying power and negotiating leverage with providers.
• Larger scale means better rate stability, because risk is distributed across a broad base rather than concentrated within a few employers.
• Access to a prescription drug coalition of over 300,000 members further enhances cost control on one of the fastest-growing components of health spending.

Portico’s benefits approach is tailored to the unique needs of social ministry and higher education organizations — balancing stewardship with robust care options.

“The pricing with Portico (on the ELCA Health Plan) was very good and in switching, we didn’t have to increase rates. It feels like we’re offering a true benefit again.”

Sue Cyncynatus
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, CFO

Talk with Our Team

Explore how a pooled plan could work for your organization. We’ll walk you through specifics and examples from organizations like yours.

Ross Eichelberger
Vice President, Business Development

612.752.4062
reichelberger@porticobenefits.org

Or fill out this form and we’ll contact you:

Reference: PwC, “Behind the Numbers 2026” (pwc.com/us/en/industries/health-industries/library/behind-the-numbers.html)