A. All municipalities, counties and political subdivisions with twenty-five employees or fewer shall cooperate in providing group term life, medical or disability income insurance for the benefit of eligible employees or salaried officers of the respective departments, institutions and subdivisions.

B. Municipalities, counties and political subdivisions with twenty-five employees or fewer may contribute any amount up to one hundred percent of the cost of the insurance. As used in this section, "cost of the insurance" means the premium required to be paid to provide coverages.

C. When a public employee elects to participate in a cafeteria plan as authorized by the Cafeteria Plan Act [10-7-14 to 10-7-19 NMSA 1978] and enters into a salary reduction agreement with a municipal or county employer, the provisions of Subsection B of this section with respect to the maximum contributions that can be made by the employer are not violated and will still apply. The employer contributions as provided in Subsection B of this section shall be determined by the employee's gross salary prior to any salary reduction agreement.

D. Any group medical insurance plan offered pursuant to this section shall include effective cost-containment measures to control the growth of health care costs. The responsible public body that administers a plan offered pursuant to this section shall report annually by September 1 to appropriate interim legislative committees on the effectiveness of the cost-containment measures required by this subsection.

E. Exempt from the provisions of Section 10-7-4 NMSA 1978 are all municipalities, counties and political subdivisions with twenty-five employees or fewer.

History: Laws 1991, ch. 191, § 1; 1994, ch. 62, § 19; 1999, ch. 44, § 2.

The 1999 amendment, effective July 1, 1999, inserted "and political subdivisions with twenty-five employees or fewer" in Subsection A, in the first sentence of Subsection B, and at the end of Subsection E, and made minor stylistic changes.

The 1994 amendment, effective March 4, 1994, substituted "departments" for "department" in Subsection A, deleted "percentage or dollar" following "employer" in the last sentence of Subsection C, redesignated former Subsection D as Subsection E, and added Subsection D.