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Let's face it. Our health care system is severely ill. Not "sick," meaning "cool," like the kids today say. It's "ill," as in "bad," as in "broken."

It doesn't matter whose fault it is - although health care middlemen such as insurance companies are spreading most of the germs. The bottom line and cold reality is that we need to fix it. Now. We need to heal our health care system before it is too late.

After the war in Iraq, the No. 1 issue on voters' minds is health care. Most Americans are tired of expensive, inefficient, inaccessible health care. They are tired of the lack of comprehensive care and rising premiums. Last year premiums rose by almost 30 percent. Co-pays and deductibles are also going up. And drug costs? Forget about it.

Almost nowhere is the need for reform more evident than right here in New Mexico. With almost one out of every four New Mexicans uninsured - and one out of five children uninsured - one would think that our state leaders would have been forced to tackle health care by now.

The problem is, for every health care advocate in Santa Fe, there are about 10 lobbyists representing the status quo or worse. Health care is big business, and ending, or at least slowing down, the gravy train isn't going to be easy.

This week, Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential campaign announced his plan for solving the problem nationally. He joins a few other presidential hopefuls who understand that they have to do something to end this crisis. They have offered a few variations and models to provide more coverage, while not breaking the federal budget. We'll see whose plan ultimately wins the most support.

Meanwhile, reform advocates here at home are still trying to get something meaningful done. Regardless of who is in the White House come 2009, New Mexico's health care system needs a fix now. But it remains to be seen whether the governor and state Legislature will be willing, much less able, to get any kind of comprehensive state health care reform done.

With the governor in the midst of a presidential race, a special session to handle health care is unlikely. Even if most legislators were willing to come back, there is no guarantee they will support comprehensive reform in a special session, given the huge likely fiscal impact any proposal would have.

That leaves a last-ditch effort for reform in the upcoming 30-day legislative session next January. It is tough enough to get a budget passed in 30 days, much less reforming the health care system - the most difficult policy reform most states have tackled.

So where does that leave us? Is it really possible that the biggest issue facing Americans will be avoided, yet again? Maybe. Unless, of course, enough of us make it too painful for our elected leaders to avoid it. Like everyone else, most policy makers only change when the status quo becomes too painful.

So think of yourself as a vaccine. It's time we all worked to cure our sick and broken health care system. To do so, we need to be willing to persuade, or even force, our elected leaders to do something meaningful to cure our ailing health care system. It's time we all felt better.