(a) The Director of the Division of Workforce Services is authorized to formulate, adopt, and administer plans to provide the regular employees of the Division of Workforce Services, as an incident of their employment, with group life insurance or insurance against the payment of medical and hospital expenses or any similar type of insurance.
(b) Any plan adopted shall be paid pursuant to the contract entered into with one (1) or more insurance companies authorized to do business in this state, and it may require the payment of all or any part of the premium by the division or by the employees.
(c) If any plan adopted requires contributions by the employees, the director may provide for the withholding of the amount of the employees' contribution from their salaries. However, the contributing share of funds paid by the division as the employer shall come from funds granted to the agency by the United States Department of Labor for such purposes.
(d) The plan may provide for the continuation of any insurance provided on the same or on a different basis upon termination of employment or after the retirement of any employee who retires after March 3, 1971, pursuant to the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System.
(e) Any plan adopted shall provide benefits similar to those made available by the United States Government to its employees generally, and the cost thereof per employee shall not exceed the cost per employee that the United States Government pays for similar insurance benefits.
(f) Participation by any employee of the division in any plan adopted shall be on a voluntary basis at the option of the employee.