33,000 PA. DOCS SEEK SUBSIDY:

About 33,000 physicians who want help paying for medical malpractice insurance have applied for a piece of a $220 million state subsidy in Pennsylvania that will be largely funded by cigarette taxes increased in December. Not all of those physicians will qualify and it’s unclear whether the number will increase, spokeswoman Rosanne Placey said. No accurate count of the number of practicing physicians is available, although the number of physicians paying their share of the state-run catastrophic insurance fund rose from about 34,000 in 1998 to more than 35,000 in 2002. Gov. Rendell proposed a $220 million bailout for 2003 and another one for 2004. To help pay for the insurance subsidy, lawmakers approved a 25-cent cigarette tax hike.