Gov. Ed Rendell's first executive order creating an Office of Health Care Reform is expected to address the healthcare crisis that is facing the state of Pennsylvania.

The biggest problem facing the central Pennsylvania region is the movement of physicians out of the state as well as the closing of certain hospital departments due to high medical insurance premiums, said Centre Community Hospital spokeswoman Maureen Karstetter.

Many doctors feel they have to leave or retire prematurely in order to shrink the high insurance costs in the state, said Dr. Aaron Bleznak, former chief of staff of Centre Community Hospital.

"If doctors continue to face high insurance premiums, then reduced access to healthcare in the area will be the result," Bleznak said.

This new executive office is slated with streamlining the current state healthcare system, Rendell spokesman Tom Hickey said.

"The new office's job will be to study the defects in the current system and make detailed suggestions to the governor about healthcare reform," Hickey said.

A key issue the committee will address is the problem of high medical malpractice insurance premiums doctors face, he said.

"There will be a special Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance Task Force within the main office that will meet many times between now and April to come up with a solution to the problem of high insurance premiums for physicians," Hickey said.

The high insurance premiums are such a problem because physicians are required by state law to have insurance, Karstetter said.

"We're lucky here because we have good doctors -- good doctors that we might lose due to high premiums," she said.

The reason premiums for physicians are so high is that juries typically award high pain and suffering awards to plaintiffs in malpractice suits, Karstetter said. This is a further problem in that many insurance companies are leaving the state because they are forced to pay high out-of-court settlements to claimants, she added.

Consequentially, the insurance premiums for hospitals and physicians are extremely high, she said.

The thought of high insurance premiums preoccupies future doctors here at Penn State.

"Insurance costs ring heavy in my mind," said Galen Foulke (freshman-premedicine).

He said Rendell's approach to healthcare reform could keep him in the state after he finishes medical school.

Still another facet of the health crisis in Pennsylvania would be the closing of hospital departments, Bleznak said. Hospitals are essentially small businesses, in which there are costs and revenues, he said. The high costs exceed revenues because hospitals cannot increase patient fees as insurance rates rise, he said.

There is a "jackpot" element in suing hospitals for negligence, because plaintiffs could win a big payment from a jury, said Darryl Slimack, a defense attorney for McQuaide Blasko, Schwartz, Fleming and Faulkner firm, which defends insurance companies.

Patients may have an operation and afterward may not be completely satisfied with the outcome, even though there was no aspect of medical negligence involved, Bleznak said. This prompts some patients to sue in the hopes of winning a huge sum of money from a jury, he said.

"There is no basis for determining the amount of an award for Pennsylvania juries," Slimack said.

Even though physicians are facing higher insurance rates, insurance companies in central Pennsylvania win a majority of the cases they see, Slimack said.