§ 163. Eligibility for benefits. 1. All persons in the service of the
state, whether elected, appointed or employed, who elect to participate
in such health benefit plan shall be eligible to participate therein,
provided, however, that the president may adopt such regulations as he
or she may deem appropriate excluding temporary, part time or
intermittent employment.

2. The contract or contracts shall provide for health benefits for
retired employees of the state and of the state colleges of agriculture,
home economics, industrial labor relations and veterinary medicine, the
state agricultural experiment station at Geneva, and any other
institution or agency under the management and control of Cornell
university as the representative of the board of trustees of the state
university of New York, and the state college of ceramics under the
management and control of Alfred university as the representative of the
board of trustees of the state university of New York, and their spouses
and dependent children as defined by the regulations of the president,
on such terms as the president may deem appropriate, and the president
may authorize the inclusion in the plan of the employees and retired
employees of public authorities, public benefit corporations, school
districts, special districts, district corporations, municipal
corporations excluding active employees and retired employees of cities
having a population of one million or more inhabitants whose
compensation is or was before retirement paid out of the city treasury,
or other appropriate agencies, subdivisions or quasi-public
organizations of the state, including active members of volunteer fire
and volunteer ambulance companies serving one or more municipal
corporations pursuant to subdivision seven of section ninety-two-a of
the general municipal law, and their spouses and dependent children as
defined by the regulations of the president. Notwithstanding any law or
regulation to the contrary, active members of volunteer ambulance
companies serving one or more municipal corporations pursuant to
subdivision seven of section ninety-two-a of the general municipal law
shall be eligible for health benefits regardless of the amount of funds
derived from public sources. Any such corporation, district, agency or
organization electing to participate in the plan shall be required to
pay its proportionate share of the expenses of administration of the
plan in such amounts and at such times as determined and fixed by the
president. All amounts payable for such expenses of administration shall
be paid to the commissioner of taxation and finance and shall be applied
to the reimbursement of funds previously advanced for such purposes.
Neither the state nor any other participant in the plan shall be charged
with the particular experience attributable to the employees of the
participant, and all dividends or retroactive rate credits shall be
distributed pro-rata based upon the number of employees of such
participant covered by the plan.

3. The president shall adopt regulations prescribing the conditions
under which an employee or retired employee may elect to participate in
or withdraw from the plan. Such regulations may also prescribe
conditions under which an employee whose service terminates and who is
entitled to a vested retirement allowance may continue to participate in
the plan; such condition shall include a requirement that such person
pay the full cost of such coverage following termination of his
employment and prior to commencement of the payment of his retirement
allowance, unless such person becomes currently entitled to, but defers
receipt of, a retirement allowance or pension from a retirement or
pension plan or system administered and operated by the state of New
York, or a civil division thereof, including the New York state
teachers' retirement system and the optional retirement programs
established under article three, part V, and article eight-B of the
education law.

4. Any public authority, public benefit corporation, school district,
special district, district corporation, municipal corporation, or other
agency, subdivision or quasi-public organization of the state, whose
employees and retired employees are authorized to be included in the
plan as provided by subdivision two, may elect to participate in such
plan. Any such election shall be exercised by the adoption of a
resolution by its governing body and, in the case of any municipal
corporation where a resolution of its governing body is required by law
to be approved by any other body or officer, such resolution shall also
be approved by such other body or officer. Any such election may be made
with respect to inclusion in the plan of both its employees and its
retired employees at the same time, or may be made only with respect to
its employees alone and at another time with respect to its retired
employees. Any such authority, corporation, district, agency,
subdivision or organization making such election shall become a
participating employer under such plan, subject to and in accordance
with the regulations of the president relating thereto.

5. The chief fiscal officer of any such participating employer shall
be authorized to deduct from the wages or salary paid to its employees
who are participants in such health benefit plan the sums required to be
paid by them under such plan. Each such participating employer is
authorized to appropriate such sums as are required to be paid by it as
its share in connection with the operation of such plan.

6. The president shall have power and authority to make such
inspection of the employment and payroll records of any participating
employer concerning any of its employees who are participants in the
health insurance fund as he may deem necessary.

7. For purposes of eligibility for participation in the health benefit
plan no person shall be deemed to be a state officer or employee or to
be in the service of the state unless his salary or compensation is paid
directly by the state, and no person shall be deemed to be a retired
officer or employee of the state unless his salary or compensation
immediately preceding his retirement was paid directly by the state;
provided, however, that all active and retired justices, judges,
officers and employees of the supreme court, surrogate's court, county
court, family court, civil court of the city of New York, criminal court
of the city of New York and district court in any county, officers and
employees of the office of probation for the courts of New York city
shall be eligible for participation in the health benefit plan whether
or not their salaries are paid or before retirement were paid directly
by the state.

8. Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary,
where the state and an employee organization representing state officers
and employees who are in positions which are in the collective
negotiating unit established by chapter four hundred three of the laws
of nineteen hundred eighty-three enter into a collectively negotiated
agreement pursuant to article fourteen of this chapter providing that
officers and employees who hold positions in such unit on or after April
first, nineteen hundred eighty-four and who immediately upon termination
from such position are eligible to receive a retirement benefit from
either the New York state or New York city retirement systems shall
continue to be eligible to participate in the employee benefit fund
established by section two hundred six-a of the state finance law, such
officers and employees upon retirement shall continue to participate in
and receive the benefits of such fund as provided in such collectively
negotiated agreement and shall not be eligible to receive and shall not
receive from the statewide health benefit plan established pursuant to
this article coverage for benefits covered by such employee benefit
fund.