21-5-410. Eligibility generally — Definition.

21-5-410. Eligibility generally — Definition. (a) Individuals eligible to participate in the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Program include: (1) All active state employees, active public school employees, or other eligible employees of a participating entity or participating institution; (2) Members of the General Assembly; (3) Elected constitutional officers; (4) Appointed or elected board and commission members who are on a full-time salaried basis; and (5)(A) Those state contract employees hired by the Arkansas National Guard on a full-time basis in accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 2304. (B) Program participation for contract employees of the Arkansas National Guard is conditioned upon the United States Government’s contributing the employer's share to the Employee Benefits Division. (b) Program participation for a state employee is conditioned upon the state employee's being in a budgeted state employee position or a position authorized by the General Assembly. (c) A state employee is one whose actual performance of duty requires one thousand (1,000) or more working hours per year. (d) If a participating institution discontinues its participation in the program, then the participating institution shall not re-participate in the program for two (2) years after the institution's final date of participation in the program unless the Director of the Employee Benefits Division gives his or her consent to an earlier date. (e) Participants are not allowed simultaneous participation in benefits provided by the state employee insurance plan or the public school employee insurance plan. (f) The Arkansas State Police Health Benefit Plan is exempt from any mandatory participation required by this section. (g)(1) The following persons are eligible to participate in the program: (A) A public school employee who is in a position that requires on average at least thirty (30) hours per week of actual performance of duty during the annual school year; and (B) A full-time school bus driver who is employed by a public school district to drive regular routes during the annual school year. (2) A public school employee who is not a full-time school bus driver and who is in a variable hour position is ineligible to participate in the program. (h) As used in this section, “full-time school bus driver” means a person: (1) Who contracts with a public school district to operate a school bus for at least seven hundred twenty (720) hours during the school year; (2) Whose primary source of income during the school year is obtained by operating a school bus for a public school district; or (3) Who contracts with a public school district to operate a school bus and is designated by the superintendent as a full-time school bus driver, regardless of the number of hours for which the person contracted.