There's a new buzz about health care issues in Washington that may propel Utah's reform efforts forward.

Ron Pollack, executive director of nonprofit Families USA, said federal lawmakers are drawing up legislation for the next session in Congress that will try to address some of the cost and accessibility issues afflicting many Americans seeking health insurance. Pollack spoke with a group of Utah legislators, health care professionals and reporters during a conference call after spending the morning Friday on Capitol Hill.

With more Democrats gaining seats in Congress, it will be easier to win support for a reform bill, he said. That bill may not be everyone's idea of a perfect solution, but with some bipartisan input, it could easily be better than the status quo, he said.

"This may be an opportunity of, for some of us, a lifetime -- an opportunity that hasn't existed for a long, long time to achieve meaningful health care reform," Pollack said. "You've got key leaders in the next Congress and in the new administration who have made clear health care reform as their top priority."

Among those is President-elect Barack Obama, who at last count had spent more than $125 million in campaign ads just on health care, Pollack said. Sens. Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus, Democrats of Massachusetts and Montana respectively, have also said reform is a priority. In the House, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., has said the same.

"In terms of the people who are going to have the biggest voice in what will be the first issues and top priorities, health care is clearly right near the top," Pollack said. "That doesn't mean we're going to agree on every issue, but there is very significant congruence on a whole bunch of issues."

Pollack encouraged lawmakers in the heavily Republican Utah Legislature not to let partisanship deter their enthusiasm for the possibility of a solution.

"Unlike the past, we can't let our second-favorite choice be the status quo," he said.

When Pollack left the call, Utah Health Policy Project Executive Director Judi Hilman conceded that Families USA generally adopts a more leftist stance on health care reform than Utahns. But she too expressed excitement over the prospects for change during the next presidential term.

"This is a brand new landscape of opportunity for health care reform," she said. "There has not been an opportunity like this to reform the health care system in perhaps two or three generations."

Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, sponsored House Bill 133 earlier this year, which established the Health System Reform Task Force and kicked off inquiries into comprehensive statewide health care reform. He said Utah shouldn't wait for a federal solution, but continue down the road toward crafting its own.

Still, nothing happens overnight. He said some of the task force's hopes could be realized in the upcoming legislative session -- including a "portal" that would somehow make insurance coverages and costs more transparent for consumers -- but other structural changes lie further down the road.

"There are a whole series of building blocks that will not be ready until probably next spring or next summer," Clark said. "The major changes I think are still not this session but the following session."

For a calendar of task force activities, check out www.healthpolicyproject.org.

• Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or astryker@heraldextra.com.