The 11,000-member Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) recently announced its support of Initiative 895, the November ballot measure aimed at getting health care for the uninsured.

“This is the only plan we’ve seen in the past 20 years that could actually do something to reduce the number of medically uninsured in Washington,” said Tom Kwieciak, BIAW insurance programs administrator. “We consider it vital and will work very hard for its passage.”

“There is a concerted opinion developing among all sorts of groups and associations throughout the state that we finally have a real plan to get medical coverage into the hands of the uninsured and the time to act is now,” said Gary Smith, president of the Independent Business Association (IBA). The IBA, the Washington chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Washington Association of Health Underwriters, started I-895 after legislative efforts to remedy the situation narrowly missed passage in the last session.

If approved by the voters, I-895 would allow health insurers to offer one health plan free of many of the costly mandates required by the state, provided they also offer a fully mandated plan. It would also make reforms to Washington’s health insurance rating laws so that the premium for each insurance plan can more closely reflect the costs of that plan. Under current law, small-business-plan costs are basically averaged over all plans offered by each insurer resulting in lower-cost plans having higher premium increases and higher-cost plans having lower cost increases.