(a) Except for a fraternal benefit society, a health care insurer that offers, issues for delivery, delivers, or renews in this state a health care insurance plan providing coverage for five or more employees of an employer in the group market shall offer a covered employee or the employee's dependent coverage for the treatment of alcoholism or drug abuse.
(b) In this section, “alcoholism or drug abuse” means an illness characterized by
(1) a physiological or psychological dependency, or both, on alcoholic beverages or controlled substances as defined in AS 11.71.900; or
(2) habitual lack of self-control in using alcoholic beverages or controlled substances to the extent that the person's health is substantially impaired or the person's social or economic function is substantially disrupted.