A. Any municipality or political subdivision of the state may make contracts of insurance with any insurance company legally authorized to do business in this state insuring their employees and officials under policies of group insurance covering hospitalization, and retirement, for such employees and officials, and may agree to match the payments of the employees and officials for the premiums or charges for any such contracts payable out of the funds of such municipality or political subdivision, respectively.
B. Nothing in this Section or in R.S. 42:851 shall be construed to limit the contribution of a local governmental subdivision toward the payment of premiums for accident and health protection for its employees or their dependents, or both.
C.(1) For purposes of this Section, a district public defender and his employees or attorney contractors may participate in any group health insurance program that the parish governing authority offers to its employees and officials.
(2) Any district public defender office that chooses to participate in the group health insurance program is responsible for the employer portion of the health insurance premium, unless paid for by the parish governing authority through a separate intergovernmental or cooperative endeavor agreement or by contractual agreement with the attorney contractor.
(3) The parish governing authority may in its discretion pay public defender employee premiums.