RCW 18.53.165

The legislature finds and declares that the costs of health care to the people are rising disproportionately to other costs and that there is a paramount concern that the right of the people to obtain access to health care in all its facets is being impaired thereby. For this reason, the reliance on the mechanism of insurance, whether profit or nonprofit, is the only effective manner in which the large majority of the people can attain access to quality health care, and it is therefore declared to be in the public interest that health care insurance be regulated to assure that all the people have access to health care rendered by whatever means, and to the greatest extent possible. RCW 18.53.165 through 18.53.190 and 18.53.901, prohibiting discrimination against the legally recognized and licensed profession of optometrists, is necessary in the interest of the public health, welfare and safety.