Last Monday, H.B. 1019, by Rep. Scott Plakon, passed the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee after significant pushback from children's advocates and trial attorneys. The bill would reduce the required liability coverage that community-based care providers must carry from $1 million per claim and $2 million per incident, to $500,000 per claim and $1.5 million per incident. In addition, the bill reduces the per-claim limit on economic damages in tort claims, from $1 million to $500,000, and imposes a per-incident cap of $1.5 million for economic damages and $500,000 for noneconomic damages. The bill also imposes an overall limit of $2 million for economic damages and $1 million for noneconomic damages for all claimants. Finally, the same provisions also are applied to subcontractors of community-based care providers. Opponents of the legislation claim that the bill will significantly limit the number of lawsuits to address harm to vulnerable children, while proponents claim that such lawsuits are extracting dollars out of the child welfare system that would otherwise go to the care of children. The companion in the Senate, S.B. 1500 by Sen. Jack Latvala, is next scheduled to be heard in its first committee of reference on Tuesday in the Banking and Insurance Committee.