Pennsylvania doctors' insurance subsidy lapses

A five-year, $1 billion taxpayer subsidy to help Pennsylvania doctors buy medical malpractice insurance has lapsed, and physicians will now have to pay higher premiums unless lawmakers break an impasse over expanding a state health insurance program. Gov. Ed Rendell supports a bill that would tie the future of the medical malpractice subsidy to approval of a $1 billion expansion of the health insurance program to cover an additional 220,000 state residents. Republicans who control the Senate, however, are critical of the health insurance provision.