The Senate today gave preliminary approval to a bill that critics charge is the year's most outrageous hand-out to trial lawyers.

"Missing from the debate was anything that indicated that this bill would help consumers of medical care. There were no patient advocates advocating for this bill," said Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton.

At issue is Senate Bill 248, by Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon. The proposal would require COPIC insurance, the state’s largest medical malpractice insurer, to open its books to unlimited public hearings whenever it files for a rate increase of over 5%.

COPIC, a non-profit trust that is run by doctors, would be the only insurer in the state subject to this requirement, after a floor amendment exempted Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s primary workers’ compensation insurer.

“This is about transparency,” said Fitz-Gerald. “We have seen rates increase, and reserves increase, well above the norm.”

Republicans pointed out that the bill is opposed by the doctors who pay for COPIC insurance. The bill would drive up the cost of medical malpractice insurance by subjecting COPIC to unlimited harassment from plaintiff's attorneys and from their competitors in the market, they argued.

“The very customers of the insurance company that it targets don’t want the bill,” said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield. “The doctors that pay the medical malpractice premiums support COPIC and don’t want the bill.”

Added Sen. Tom Wiens, R-Castle Rock, “This is a classic example of ‘If it ain’t broke, keep legislating until it is.’”

The debate was dominated by charges that the proposal was a political payoff to trial lawyers, who historically oppose COPIC because of Colorado’s strict caps on pain and suffering damages in malpractice suits.

“We had almost five hours of testimony on this bill, and the only two groups that I recall testifying in favor of this were the trial lawyers and CoPIRG,” said Ward, referring to the liberal anti-business lobby. “It’s a toss to the trial lawyers.”

“This is about allowing trial lawyers to harass COPIC,” he continued in comments after the debate. “It’s the patients that will suffer when doctors are forced to leave the state or pay outrageous insurance premiums.”

Mitchell added that the bill creates “a regulatory structure to do a financial strip-search” of COPIC at every turn.