(1) The legislature recognizes that (a) the state is a major purchaser of health care services, (b) the increasing costs of such health care services are posing and will continue to pose a great financial burden on the state, (c) it is the state’s policy, consistent with the best interests of the state, to provide comprehensive health care as an employer, to public employees, officials, their dependents, and to those who are dependent on the state for necessary medical care, and (d) it is imperative that the state begin to develop effective and efficient health care delivery systems and strategies for procuring health care services in order for the state to continue to purchase the most comprehensive health care possible.

(2) It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to establish the Washington state health care authority whose purpose shall be to (a) develop health care benefit programs that provide access to at least one comprehensive benefit plan funded to the fullest extent possible by the employer, and a health savings account/high deductible health plan option as defined in section 1201 of the medicare prescription drug improvement and modernization act of 2003, as amended, for eligible public employees, officials, and their dependents, and (b) study all state purchased health care, alternative health care delivery systems, and strategies for the procurement of health care services and make recommendations aimed at minimizing the financial burden which health care poses on the state, public employees, and its charges, while at the same time allowing the state to provide the most comprehensive health care options possible.