DES MOINES -- Hundreds of Iowa doctors braved a cold rain Thursday to urge Iowa lawmakers to place limits on awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits, warning that high liability insurance costs are driving doctors out of practice.

Doctors dressed in white lab coats rallied on the State Capitol steps, saying the state faces a shortage of doctors in specialty areas because of skyrocketing insurance premiums.

The insurance problem is so great that patients in Iowa are waiting months for some procedures and pregnant women in rural Iowa are having a difficult time finding care, said Tom Evans, president of the Iowa Medical Society, which represents 4,000 doctors.

"If you need to get a hip replaced, put yourself on the waiting list -- it can take quite a while," he said.

The Legislature is considering a plan that would limit awards for pain an suffering at $250,000. Backers of the legislation say caps in other states have helped bring down liability insurance for doctors.

But trial lawyers and consumer groups say those type of limits restrict the rights of patients.

Lisa Davis Cook, executive director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network, said putting an artificial cap on what patients can recover goes against what the American the legal system is all about.

"We believe that this isn't about doctors or lawyers, it's about people and what their lives are worth when they've been wronged," she said.

Dr. Daniel Congreve, a former general surgeon at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, left practice last year when the cost of his malpractice insurance was quoted at $40,000 for the next year.

Congreve, 50, said he had always thought he'd stay in the profession until he was 55 or 60, but the economic realities drove him out.

He said stories like his will be repeated all over the state as more doctors leave the practice of medicine, in large part because of insurance costs.

"People don't understand that with physicians retiring early, you're going to lose a whole resource pool of expertise," he said.

Dr. Tom Gellhaus, an obstetrician/gynecologist with Genesis, said there likely will be a shortage of doctors in his specialty because of their high insurance costs.

"It's going to be a definite problem in the near future," Gellhaus said.

Both doctors back the legislation and attended the Des Moines rally.

The Iowa Trial Lawyers Association was at the Capitol earlier this week to lobby against the limits. The group says bad investment decisions by insurance companies, not pain and suffering awards, are to blame for high insurance premiums for doctors.