66.0137 Provision of insurance.

(1) Definition. In this section:

(ac) “Board of Regents” means the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

(af) “Dies in the line of duty" means a death that occurs, or occurred, as a direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained by, or a single exposure to a hazardous material or condition experienced by, a law enforcement officer, fire fighter, or emergency medical services practitioner while he or she was engaged in a line of duty activity or that arose out of and as a result of such an individual's performance of a line of duty activity.

(ah) “Emergency medical services practitioner” has the meaning given in s. 256.01 (5), except that in this section it applies only to an individual who is employed directly by a political subdivision or by a joint emergency medical services department operated jointly by 2 or more political subdivisions.

(am) “Law enforcement officer" means all of the following:

1. Any person employed by a political subdivision for the purpose of detecting and preventing crime and enforcing laws or ordinances and who is authorized to make arrests for violations of the laws or ordinances that the person is employed to enforce.

2. Any jailer who, under the direction of a sheriff under s. 59.27 (1), keeps persons in a county jail.

3. A Marquette University police officer, as defined in s. 175.42 (1) (b).

4. A state patrol officer, as that term is defined in s. 252.01 (7).

5. A state capitol police officer.

6. A University of Wisconsin System police officer.

7. An officer of the division of criminal investigation.

8. A department of natural resources conservation warden.

9. A county sheriff, undersheriff, or deputy sheriff.

10. A chief of police.

11. A special agent employed by the department of revenue who is authorized to act under s. 73.031.

12. A state fair park police officer duly appointed under s. 42.01 (2).

(ap) “Line of duty activity" means any employment-related action taken by a law enforcement officer, fire fighter, or emergency medical services practitioner that is required or authorized by law, rule, regulation, or condition of employment and for which compensation is provided by his or her employing agency or would have been eligible to have been provided by the employing agency if the law enforcement officer, fire fighter, or emergency medical services practitioner had been on duty when he or she took the action in question.

(as) “Local governmental unit" means a political subdivision, school district (as enumerated in s. 67.01 (5)), sewerage district, drainage district, and, without limitation because of enumeration, any other political subdivision of the state.

(b) “Municipality" means any city, village, or town.

(c) “Political subdivision" means any municipality or county.

(2) Liability and worker's compensation insurance. The state or a local governmental unit may procure risk management services and liability insurance covering the state or local governmental unit and its officers, agents and employees and worker's compensation insurance covering officers and employees of the state or local governmental unit. A local governmental unit may participate in and pay the cost of risk management services and liability and worker's compensation insurance through a municipal insurance mutual organized under s. 611.23.

(3) Health insurance for unemployed persons. Any political subdivision may purchase health or dental insurance for unemployed persons residing in the political subdivision who are not eligible for medical assistance under s. 49.46, 49.468, 49.47, or 49.471 (4) (a).

(4) Self-insured health plans. If a city, including a 1st class city, or a village provides health care benefits under its home rule power, or if a town provides health care benefits, to its officers and employees on a self-insured basis, the self-insured plan shall comply with ss. 49.493 (3) (d), 631.89, 631.90, 631.93 (2), 632.746 (10) (a) 2. and (b) 2., 632.747 (3), 632.798, 632.85, 632.853, 632.855, 632.867, 632.87 (4) to (6), 632.885, 632.89, 632.895 (9) to (17), 632.896, and 767.513 (4).

(4m) Joint self-insured plans and stop loss insurance.

(a) Notwithstanding sub. (1) (as), in this subsection, “local governmental unit" means a city, village, town, county, or school district.

(b) A local governmental unit and one or more other local governmental units, that together have at least 100 employees, may jointly provide health care benefits to their officers and employees on a self insured basis.

(bm) A technical college district and one or more other technical college districts, that together have at least 100 employees, may jointly do any of the following:

1. Provide health care benefits to their officers and employees on a self-insured basis.

2. Procure stop loss insurance.

3. Self-insure stop loss risk.

(c) Any plan under par. (b) or (bm) 1. shall comply with the provisions listed in sub. (4).

(4t) Health insurance for protective services employees. If a 1st class city offers health care insurance to employees who are police officers, fire fighters, or emergency medical services practitioners, as defined in s. 256.01 (5), the 1st class city shall also offer to the employees who are police officers, fire fighters, or emergency medical services practitioners a high-deductible health plan.

(5) Hospital, accident and life insurance.

(a) In this subsection, “local governmental unit" includes the school district operating under ch. 119.

(b) The state or a local governmental unit may provide for the payment of premiums or cost sharing for hospital, surgical and other health and accident insurance and life insurance for employees and officers, their spouses, and dependent children. A local governmental unit may also provide for the payment of premiums or cost sharing for hospital and surgical care for its retired employees. In addition, a local governmental unit may, by ordinance or resolution, elect to offer to all of its employees a health care coverage plan through a program offered by the group insurance board under ch. 40. A local governmental unit that elects to participate under s. 40.51 (7) is subject to the applicable sections of ch. 40 instead of this subsection.

(c)

1. Except as provided in subds. 2. and 3., if a municipality provides for the payment of premiums for hospital, surgical, and other health insurance for its fire fighters, it shall continue to pay such premiums for the surviving spouse and dependent children of the fire fighter who dies in the line of duty.

1m. Except as provided in subds. 2. and 3., if a political subdivision, the state, the Board of Regents, or Marquette University provides for the payment of premiums for hospital, surgical, and other health insurance for its law enforcement officers or emergency medical services practitioners, it shall continue to pay such premiums for the surviving spouse and dependent children of the law enforcement officer or emergency medical services practitioner who dies while in the line of duty.

2. A political subdivision, the state, the Board of Regents, or Marquette University may not be required to pay the premiums described in subd. 1. or 1m. for a surviving spouse upon the remarriage of the surviving spouse or upon the surviving spouse reaching the age of 65.

3. An individual is not a dependent child for the purposes of subd. 1. or 1m. after the individual reaches the age of 26.

4. Except as needed to administer this paragraph, a political subdivision, the state, the Board of Regents, and Marquette University shall keep confidential any personally identifiable information, as defined in s. 19.62 (5), of a surviving spouse and dependent children for whom the political subdivision, the state, the Board of Regents, or university makes a payment under this paragraph.

(d) If a political subdivision pays the premiums described in par. (c) 1. or 1m., annually, in order to receive reimbursement, the political subdivision shall report to the department of revenue by March 15 of each year the amounts paid in the previous calendar year.

History: 1999 a. 9, 115; 1999 a. 150 ss. 34, 303 to 306; Stats. 1999 s. 66.0137; 1999 a. 186 s. 63; 2001 a. 16, 30; 2005 a. 194; 2005 a. 443 s. 265; 2007 a. 20, 36; 2009 a. 14, 28, 146, 180, 218, 276, 285; 2011 a. 260; 2013 a. 20; 2013 a. 116 s. 29; 2013 a. 117 s. 2, 3; 2013 a. 186; 2015 a. 55; 2017 a. 12, 30, 59; 2019 a. 19.

Section 66.185 [now sub. (5)] does not prohibit providing health insurance benefits to persons not listed in the statute if authority is granted by other statutes. Sections 120.12, 120.13, and 120.44, broadly construed as required by s. 118.001, grant broad powers, including that of providing insurance to persons not listed in this section. Pritchard v. Madison Metropolitan School District, 2001 WI App 62, 242 Wis. 2d 301, 625 N.W.2d 613, 00-0848.

This section authorizes the purchase of liability insurance for state officers, agents, and employees for errors or omissions in carrying out the responsibility of their governmental positions. 58 Atty. Gen. 150.