What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, everyone was calling on the state lawmakers to

fix Washington’s health care system. Nothing happened.

Now, a year later, they’ve fixed most of the problems.

In the 2000 session, legislators approved two measures that create

a Patients’ Bill of Rights and repair much of the

damage caused by the so-called “health care

reforms” passed in 1993. As a result, private

insurers are pledging to re-enter the individual

health insurance market in Washington state. Gov.

Locke is expected to sign both bills.

Hopefully, these improvements will take the steam out of

Initiative 725, a costly and ill-conceived attempt to bring “Canadian-style,

single-payer, GOVERNMENT-RUN health care” to Washington state.

Sponsored by a coalition of single-payer “let-the-government-run-it”

enthusiasts and health care practitioners, I-725 promises freedom of choice

and gold-plated health care at bargain basement prices, regardless of

income or pre-existing conditions. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

I-725 would require virtually every individual and employer in

Washington state to pay mandatory premiums and payroll assessments —

even if they already have private insurance. Of course, you could keep

your present insurance if you prefer, but you would still have to pay all the

I-725 premiums to the government. In other words, you’ll have to pay

double if you want to keep your current health coverage.

So much for freedom of choice.

But the biggest problem with the initiative is what it will do to the

quality of our health care. I-725 is modeled after the disastrous

government-controlled Canadian system.

Seventy-six percent of Canadians say their health care system is in

crisis.

Over the last decade, 4,000 physicians have left Canada to practice

in the U.S.

In December 1999, a 69-year-old Canadian man died of a heart

attack after waiting 39 hours for an available hospital bed. Inquests are pending

in the deaths of two other patients turned away from hospitals.

On Jan. 2, 2000, 23 of 25 Toronto emergency rooms were closed to

all patients, regardless of the severity of their illness.

The Canadian Medical Journal reported that in Ontario during one

12-month period, 121 patients were permanently removed from a waiting

list for coronary by-pass surgery because they had become so sick they

were unlikely to survive surgery.

As Canadian doctor Gordon Brock laments, “Canadians are the

possessors — and the victims — of an

increasingly mediocre and outdated, out-of-step system of health care.”

Is that the kind of health care system we want in Washington state?

Not for me or my family.

State legislators took a big step this session toward

fixing Washington’s health care problems. There are still issues to be

resolved, but their efforts should be given a chance to work. Now is not the

time for voters to jump off the deep end and embrace an initiative whose

only model of health care is an unmitigated disaster.

Don Brunell is president of the Association of Washington

Business, Washington state’s chamber of commerce. Visit AWB on the Web

at www.awb.org.