"NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that:
     (a) Health care spending in the state and nationally is rising rapidly. In 2010, health care expenditures will comprise more than seventeen percent of the nation's gross domestic product;
     (b) Health care spending is growing as a percentage of Washington state's budget. From 2000 to 2007, health care expenditures have increased from twenty-two percent to twenty-nine percent of the state budget. This rapid rise in expenditures is competing with other needed services, including K-12 education;
     (c) The legislature appropriates over one billion dollars per year to support the benefits for K-12 employees. However, there is very little transparency or accountability for how those benefit dollars are spent; and
     (d) Purchasing of health benefits for school employees is decentralized and is managed by individual school districts and educational service districts, resulting in additional administrative costs, duplicative efforts, and a fragmented purchasing pool.
     (2) Therefore, the legislature intends to pursue streamlining the purchasing and delivery of school district and educational service district employee health care benefits. Centralized purchasing of health benefits would provide administrative efficiencies while also providing transparency and accountability for the benefit spending.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   If established under Concurrent Resolution 8409 of the 2010 legislative session, the joint select committee on health reform implementation may consider ways to streamline the purchasing and delivery of school district and educational service district employee health care benefits, including opportunities to insert administrative efficiency, create transparency and accountability for benefit spending, and create more equitable premium contributions for employees with dependents. The joint select committee may appoint an advisory committee for this purpose and may review available data to inform its recommendations.

Sec. 3   RCW 28A.400.275 and 1990 1st ex.s. c 11 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Any contract for employee benefits executed after April 13, 1990, between a school district and a benefit provider or employee bargaining unit is null and void unless it contains an agreement to abide by state laws relating to school district employee benefits. The term of the contract may not exceed one year.
     (2) ((School districts)) A health insurer, as defined in RCW 74.09A.010, providing or administering health care benefits for school district or educational school district employees shall annually submit to the Washington state health care authority summary descriptions of all benefits offered under the district's employee benefit plan. The ((districts)) health insurer shall also submit data to the health care authority specifying the total number of employees and, for each employee, types of coverage or benefits received including numbers of covered dependents, ((the number of eligible dependents,)) and the age and sex of the employee and each dependent. The health insurer in coordination with the school district must submit the amount of the district's contribution, each bargaining group's pooling dollars available per member, and additional premium costs paid by the employee through payroll deductions((, and the age and sex of the employee and each dependent)). The plan descriptions and the data shall be submitted in a format and according to a schedule established by the health care authority. The first submission of data from each health insurer must be provided by November 1, 2010.
     (((3) Any benefit provider offering a benefit plan by contract with a school district under subsection (1) of this section shall agree to make available to the school district the benefit plan descriptions and, where available, the demographic information on plan subscribers that the district is required to report to the Washington state health care authority under this section.
     (4) This section shall not apply to benefit plans offered in the 1989-90 school year.))"