Washington Post: Senate Panel Rejects Gov's (Med Malpractice) Legislation

[Bertha Venation]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31184-2004Dec28.html

A Maryland Senate panel curtly rejected Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s medical malpractice legislation this morning and instead sent to the floor an alternative that contains fewer legal changes than Ehrlich is seeking and an HMO tax that he opposes.

The Senate Rules Committee voted 8 to 3, breaking along party lines, to forward the legislation developed by a Senate task force led by Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery). The panel voted by the same margin not to recommend the governor's bill.

The actions came in the opening hours of Maryland's first special session in more than a decade. Ehrlich is seeking legislation that both creates a short-term fund to curb doctors' escalating insurance rates and legal reforms designed to stabilize rates in the future.

~snip~

A House bill introduced this morning by House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) includes the HMO tax but retains most of the legal reforms sought by Ehrlich. House committees are scheduled to consider both the House bill and the governor's bill this afternoon.