Pa. MCARE extension uncertain
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
The Pennsylvania House and Senate Tuesday approved a bill extending Pennsylvania's medical malpractice fund – but Gov. Ed Rendell hasn't decided whether he'll sign it into law.
The measure, which passed the House on a 117-81 vote, extends Pennsylvania's Medical Care Availabililty and Reduction of Error Fund, known as MCARE, for another seven years.
Scot Chadwick of the Pennsylvania Medical Society has some issues with the measure. He says the current law gives the state's insurance commissioner a chance to reconfigure every two years the ratio of private and public coverage hospitals are required to purchase. This bill, however, locks a 50-50 split into place through 2017.
"I think we've always felt that the private insurance market can do a better job of selling insurance than the state can," says Chadwick. "A free market competitive system allows more choice, allows — probably — for better pricing.
Rendell says he's not sure whether he'll sign the bill into law. He's unhappy with language returning unspent funds to hospitals instead of rolling the money into the next year of coverage.
Pennsylvania has paid out 329 MCARE claims this year compared with a high of 701 in 2003.