Just when all hope of effective health reform in California's special legislative session seemed dead, out come the Senate Republicans with a raft of 20 bills (not yet released), most of which promise to reduce over regulation of health care and increase individual choice.  Last week, I was at a California Republican leadership conference with Senator Ackerman and his colleagues, and I was certain that they had no intention of caving in to Governor Schwarzenegger's tax hike. This step confirms it.

It is a shame that the governor has now resorted to privatizing the lottery to fund his $14 billion "reform", which has increased from $12 billion in his January 2007 initial outline.  If he simply dropped his tax hike and fantastical vision of universal coverage, he could get bipartisan agreement on many of the reforms that the Senate Republicans propose, and that he, himself, favored in his January proposal.

The Senate Republican legislative package promises to:

• Free insurers and businessses to craft health plans that serve their interests, not government regulators';
• Make Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) more attractive via tax reform; and
• Increase price transparency - so patients know what they're paying for.

There are more than twenty bills in the package.  Will the governor and Democratic leaders find at least a few of these cost-reducing, quality-increasing measures tolerable, let them pass, and get these poor legislators out of this special session that is achieving nothing so far in health reform?

For the sake of California's health, let's hope so.