Senate Democrats blinked today in their push for a policy that could drive up the cost of practicing medicine in Colorado -- and drive some doctors out of the state.

Following GOP-led opposition, the sponsor of Senate Bill 248 delayed the measure’s implementation for two years pending a study, which allows the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee to determine whether to proceed with the legislation.

The amended bill still was opposed by almost all Republicans because of its potential to destabilize the once-volatile market for medical-malpractice insurance.

SB 248, by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, and Rep. Claire Levy, D-Denver, would

authorize unlimited public hearings for any insurance company that raises its rates by 5 percent or more. Insurers that represent more than 65 percent of a particular insurance market would be covered by the bill, which would affect only one insurer -- COPIC, the nonprofit trust that covers most physicians in the state.

COPIC has been credited by physicians and others with stabilizing malpractice insurance premiums, which once were rising so quickly as to prompt doctors to leave the state or quit practicing medicine altogether.

Doctors testified en masse against the bill in committee, saying that they did not ask for extra regulation of COPIC and do not want it. 

Among key Republicans opposing the measure as amended was Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton, who said the bill remained fundamentally flawed in that lawmakers would have to pull the plug in two years if the study found that the measure was unnecessary. That uncertainty, Ward said, would have a chilling effect on the medical profession.  

“The Legislature should have to act in the affirmative rather than the negative on the bill,” Ward said. “We will have the effect of having doctors move out of the state because of this legislation.”

With the Fitz-Gerald amendment, the bill passed on a near party-line vote of 19-16 by the Senate.

Fitz-Gerald said SB 248 provides enhanced “transparency” in the cost of medical malpractice for Colorado residents who pay rates.

Republicans say the proposal unfairly singles out one medical insurance company, COPIC Insurance, and benefits trial lawyers by encouraging litigation within the courts when companies increase a fee.

“The bill is a hit job by Democrats and trial lawyers to punish their enemies,” said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield.

Sen. Tom Wiens, R-Castle Rock, said SB 248 acts as an unnecessary watchdog for state doctors.

“Additional oversight on physicians who buy insurance coverage is dead wrong,” he said.