JACKSON - The House Insurance Committee on Tuesday approved a bill to create an insurance pool for medical providers who are losing their malpractice insurance or can't afford high premiums.
The committee made some changes to a bill that passed the Senate last week. Committee Chairwoman Mary Ann Stevens, D-West, said the purpose was the same: to make some insurance available for those in the medical community.
One difference between the two bills was that the House version would require publicly owned hospitals to join the pool and only opt out if they can show they have better coverage from the private sector. The Senate bill had no opt-out provision.
Rep. Eric Robinson, R-Quitman, protested the requirement that publicly owned hospitals join the pool. He said his local hospital pays only $48,000 annually for insurance and he couldn't support a state pool that might triple or quadruple those rates.
Stevens said for the state pool to be financially sound, as many hospitals, doctors and other medical facilities as possible must participate.
Statewide, 535 doctors and 46 hospitals, about half of them publicly owned, are facing uncertainty because their insurer, Reciprocal of America, was taken over last month by Virginia regulators. Mississippi insurance officials say few companies are willing to write new policies in the state.
Under the bill, the Tort Claims Board would oversee the pool.
Mississippi law provides a governmental body is liable for damages up to $500,000 from a single act. In addition, governmental entities can buy supplemental liability insurance to cover claims more than $500,000.
The Tort Claims Act controls all suits for negligence brought against the state or local governments and public officials. A board oversees administration of the law.
Tort Claims Board administrator Greg Hardy has said the insurance pool could be in place in 60 days after a law is enacted. The bill now goes to the full House.
In other action Tuesday:
- Senators voted 27-20 against a bill that opponents said could make it easier for terrorists to get Mississippi driver's licenses.
The bill would have let people applying for a driver's license who did not have a Social Security card bring two other proofs of residency and get a license.
Sen. Glenn Hamilton, R-Maben, said illegal aliens - or those in the country on work visas - could readily gain a valid four-year Mississippi driver's license and come and go as they please.
Senate Highways Committee Chairman Bob Dearing, D-Natchez, said there are many reasons someone would not have a Social Security card. He said the bill was to help those Mississippians get a driver's license.
- The House approved a bill to let the Public Service Commission set up a "no call" list for people who don't want to be contacted by telephone solicitors.
The bill also says telephone solicitors could call only between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, with no calls on Saturdays or Sundays.
The bill goes to the Senate.
- The House approved a bill to let schools buy textbooks before the July 1 start of a fiscal year so the books would arrive in time for the fall term.
The bill was amended to say that any textbook used to teach evolution would have to include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory. Rep. Carmel Wells-Smith, R-Pascagoula, who pushed for the provision, said children should be told to keep open minds about ideas of how the world came into existence.
The amendment passed 79-37, then the bill passed 113-5. It goes to the Senate.
- The House approved a bill that would let cemeteries that are 25 years or older expand on 16th Section school land.
State law now restricts cemeteries on 16th Section land to two-acre plots, said Rep. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall.
Fillingane said he is trying to help Spring Chapel Baptist Church Cemetery in Lamar County.
Copyright 2003, Associated Press. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
