Request By:
Ms. Rhonda Morgan
Legislative Analyst
Legislative Research Commission
State Capitol Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Patrick B. Kimberlin, III, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your recent letter wherein you seek, at the request of Representative Roger Noe, our opinion as to the following:
Whether a beneficiary of the Kentucky Employes Retirement System (KERS), who receives a retirement allowance insufficient to pay the medical insurance and group hospital premium through payroll deductions under KRS 61.702, may pay the difference in cost of the premium?
Pursuant to KRS 61.702(4) * group rates under the hospital and medical insurance plans shall be made available to the spouse and dependents of the recipient who was a former member of one of the covered retirement systems and to the beneficiary where he is receiving a retirement allowance, "provided the premium for the spouse, dependent or beneficiary hospital and medical insurance is paid by payroll deduction from such retirement allowance. " (Emphasis ours).
It is our opinion that the above quoted statutory provision is controlling on the question you pose. And, because the language of that provision is clear and unambiguous on its face, it is not subject to statutory construction, but must be interpreted literally.
Hilliard v. U.S., 310 F.2d 631 (6th Cir., 1962);
Barrett v. Stephany, Ky., 510 S.W.2d 524 (1974). Thus, in order to take advantage of the group rates available for hospital and medical insurance coverage, premiums may only be paid by payroll deductions and not in any other manner.
Footnotes
Footnotes
* "Group rates under the hospital and medical insurance plan shall be made available to the spouse and dependents of a recipient who was a former member of one (1) or more of the three (3) retirement systems, and to the beneficiary where such beneficiary is receiving a retirement allowance, provided the premium for the spouse, dependent or beneficiary hospital and medical insurance is paid by payroll deduction from such retirement allowance. "