A five-year, $1 billion taxpayer subsidy to help Pennsylvania doctors buy medical malpractice insurance lapsed Monday, forcing physicians to pay higher premiums unless Democrats and Republicans break an impasse over expanding a state health insurance program.Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell supports a bill that passed the Democratic-led House March 17 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 adults who cannot afford other coverage.

But Republicans who control the Senate are critical of the health insurance provision, and encouraged the House instead to pass a bill unanimously approved by the Senate in December that would extend the medical malpractice subsidy through the end of 2008.

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