Some of Colorado's leading voices on health policy--representing both parties and wide-ranging views--spoke out in unison today against a Democrat bill they said would drive up health-care costs and drive out doctors. They said the legislation, which just emerged Friday and is being fast-tracked through a committee today, comes ironically at the very time the state is trying to reform health care and rein in soaring costs.

Bill Lindsay, who chaired the bipartisan "208 commission" on health care reform, the GOP's Sen. Josh Penry, of Grand Junction, and Sen. Bob Hagedorn, an Aurora Democrat,

appeared at a morning news conference at the Capitol to denounce Senate Bill 164 as a gift to trial lawyers at the public's expense.

"This is the wrong step for Colorado at absolutely the wrong time," Lindsay said.

Lindsay, Penry and Hagedorn said the bill would drive up costs throughout the health-care system by loosening the current statutory restraints on lawsuits against doctors--creating a litigation-friendly climate that would drive up docs' liability-insurance premiums.