Today the Capitol Weekly reports that the health insurance companies are complaining about legislative leaders' worthy efforts to expand health care coverage to various medical procedures. Unfortunately, none of these proposed coverage mandates would provide affordable, quality health care for any of the more than 6 million Californians currently without health insurance.

Those insurance companies and their associations should be counting their blessings that our weak-kneed Sacramento politicians prefer to tinker around the edges than to implement sweeping reform. I suppose their powerful lobby wants it cake and eats it too.

Since the needlessly complex attempt at health care reform by Speaker Nunez and Governor Schwarzenegger failed a public death, the legislature and the news media have conveniently moved their collective focus to the next crisis, our recurring budget deficit.

That's fine, the deficit will surely have to be addressed, but we must recognize that it is partly created by tax-payer funded, expensive emergency room visits by many of the 6 million without healthcare who have no other place to go.

Sacramento must also recognize that they have yet to solve the last crisis they attended to. Yes, there are political realties and yes, we should make sure that insurance companies are not allowed to flippantly deny care to their patients in order to boost their profits.

Cut-and-run attempts at comprehensive health care reform is holding California back and giving strength to conservative activists who want to maintain a social order of haves and have nots. I hope and pray the poll-driven strategies that led to reform's latest defeat will not be revisited when budget negotiations begin in earnest.