INSURANCE

A state senator whose auto insurance reform bill faced strong opposition from the industry said she will kill the legislation and introduce a revamped measure later this session.

Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, said insurance officials had exaggerated the increased costs of Senate Bill 193, but she said she will scuttle the legislation and reintroduce a bill that will fix technical language problems while lowering the amount of medical coverage required by the measure.

The insurance industry had warned that Tochtrop's bill mandating $50,000 in extra medical insurance coverage for motorists would tack on another $200 a year for a car policy.

Tochtrop said the measure is necessary because hospitals and ambulance companies are having to eat millions of dollars in unpaid bills for uninsured motorists.

She introduced similar legislation last year to address what she calls a crisis of cost-shifting to health care providers.

Current law requires individuals to carry bodily injury coverage in the amount of $25,000 per person injured and $50,000 per accident occurrence.

SB 193 would have required auto policies to include at least $25,000 for all medically necessary and accident-related health care expenses for bodily injury, and at least $25,000 for all medically necessary and accident-related health care expenses for rehabilitation, treatments or occupational training for five years after an accident.

Alan Gathright

CONSTRUCTION

Testimony heard on home-defect measure

Lynnea and Gerard Louison thought they were buying their dream home - an 18-month-old house in suburban Arapahoe County.

Shortly after moving in, they found cracking walls and a twisted beam. The builder told the Louisons, the home's second owners, to submit their request for warranty repairs in writing.

Later, a judge told the couple that the written request had triggered a waiver in a warranty contract they'd never seen. Now, they couldn't sue for an estimated $360,000 in repairs on a house that cost $322,000.

"After five years of them dragging their feet, we're stuck in this house that has significant structural damage," Lynnea Louison said before testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

The panel was hearing testimony on House Bill 1338, the so-called Homeowner Protection Act of 2007.

Sponsor Rep. Jack Pommer said the bill would bring back balance to a legal system tilted against consumers by a 2003 law that was supposed to shield builders from an onslaught of construction-defect lawsuits, while preserving home buyers' legal rights.

Instead, virtually all major production builders in the state are inserting non-negotiable clauses in their sales contracts that allow them to wiggle out of correcting home defects, Pommer said.

Pat Hamill, principal of Oakwood Homes, testified that his firm resolves about 95 percent of defect claims through his customer-care department.

He said he fears that the bill would again drive up builders' liability insurance costs.

Alan Gathright

HEALTH CARE

Plan OK'd to cover low-income kids

Bernadette Molina is among the 180,000 Colorado children without health care because her mother, who manages a condominium complex, can't afford health insurance.

"My mom is the hardest-working single mother ever," the 14- year-old said in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday. "But as many hours as she works, she still can't pay off one emergency room visit. This isn't right."

The girl's mother, Susan Molina, was among a half-dozen witnesses to testify on behalf of a measure to provide health care coverage for all low-income children by 2010.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-3 in favor of Senate Bill 211, by Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, and Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver.

Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R- Broomfield, blasted the Democrats for rushing through a major health care reform measure that would increase the state's Medicaid costs by an estimated $164 million by 2010.

April Washington

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