By Spencer Hunt
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - Majority Republican lawmakers proposed Monday that the state Department of Insurance establish a fund to help cover escalating medical malpractice awards.

Lawmakers didn't specify who would pay into the fund, but said it could include a portion of what consumers pay for health insurance. The idea of an insurance fund was contained in a bill intended to cap the money that juries award in malpractice cases.

That bill, which was approved in committee Monday evening, will be on the House floor today. The measure is meant to help doctors cope with recent 20 percent to 60 percent increases in their insurance premiums. Those soaring costs were spurred, in part, by increasingly expensive medical malpractice settlements and several multimillion-dollar verdicts.

This latest proposal would spread the cost of malpractice awards far beyond the premiums doctors pay.

State Rep. John Willamowski, R-Lima, said tapping other sources of money, including patients, is the best way to reduce insurance costs that could force some doctors to leave Ohio or quit their practices.

"If we don't have a way to bring the premiums down, and we start losing docs, I guess the consumers will care about that," said Mr. Willamowski, chairman of the House Civil and Commercial Law Committee. "I myself wouldn't mind paying a dollar a month out of my pocket for my health care plan if it will solve the problem."

Opponents of lawsuit limits said it's wrong to make patients pay to cover doctors' and insurance companies' mistakes.

"The medical profession wants to solve its insurance problem by taking money out of the pockets of malpractice victims and from innocent and unrelated medical insurance policyholders," said Richard Mason, director of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers.

"It's a tax on health insurance policyholders," he said.

The House Republican proposal is modeled after an Indiana insurance program funded by doctors, hospitals and other health professionals. Eight other states also run similar funds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Indiana, doctors pay their insurance companies for up to $250,000 in malpractice coverage. Then they pay state insurance officials a surcharge for an additional $1 million in coverage.

All malpractice awards in Indiana are limited to a total of $1.25 million, said Amy Strati, chief legal counsel for the Indiana Department of Insurance.

Under the Ohio House Republicans' proposal, insurance companies would pay up to $350,000 for all nonpermanent injuries.

The state would then pay any remaining costs up to a maximum $500,000.

In cases involving permanent or "catastrophic" injuries, insurance companies would pay a maximum $500,000. The state would pay any remaining costs up to either $1 million or an amount equal to $15,000 a year for the life of the injured patient, if that's more. At $15,000 a year it would take 70 years to exceed $1 million.

Mr. Willamowski said he expects malpractice insurance premiums to drop in Ohio if this plan is passed. The reason: Insurance companies would no longer have to worry about paying multimillion-dollar jury awards.

"No insurance company is going to suffer more than $500,000 in losses (per case)," he said.

The bill wouldn't impose these changes right away. Instead it orders state insurance officials to come up with a funding plan to make the proposal work. The Department of Insurance would face a Feb. 1 deadline to come up with a plan lawmakers can pass next year.

Todd Boyer, a department spokesman, said the agency hasn't taken a stand. "At this point, we are merely acting in an advisory role to lawmakers in how to craft a study," he said. Until that study is complete and lawmakers pass a new bill, insurance companies would cover all costs up to the $500,000 and $1 million limits.

State Rep. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland and one of the main advocates of the plan, hopes insurance officials can find other sources of funds besides doctors and patients. That could include cigarette tax revenues, tobacco settlement funds and other kinds of insurance policies, he said.

The House Civil and Commercial Law Committee passed the plan 6-3 Monday. It will come up for a vote in the full House as early as today. The bill would have to be approved in the Senate. Sen. Scott Nein, R-Middletown and chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee, said he was "a little leery of the state becoming an insurance company."

E-mail shunt@enquirer.com