Time is running out on health care reform this session, and the Legislature may again show it can't get anything done of substance. We urge in our editorial today a legislative compromise that the governor can support.

There are 6.8 million uninsured in California. We all pay for them in higher health insurance premiums and the problems contributes to the long waits that we all experience in the emergency rooms of the state's hospitals.

The New America Foundation estimates that every California family with health insurance pays a hidden tax of $1,186 each year when unpaid medical bills of the uninsured get "cost shifted" to the insured.

Delaying this problem only makes it more costly to solve.