State lawmakers have ambitious health care goals, including proposals to provide universal coverage for Coloradans. But chances are slim that broad health care reform will be enacted this session, lawmakers said.

Incoming House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, said the state is in a "holding pattern" with health care reform.

Carroll wants to give every person access to high-quality health care. He supports single-payer, Canada-style health care. But with an estimated $13 billion startup cost, and the prospect of a $604 million budget deficit because of the recession, the state can't afford it right now.

State Rep. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, said smaller-scale proposals could be passed.

The major hope among many lawmakers is a measure that would alter the way hospitals get reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid patients. This plan could bring state hospitals more than $600 million in additional federal funds, lawmakers said.

"It's a very big project," said incoming state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo. He said the measure is being spearheaded by the governor's office.

The plan also would give slightly more money to hospitals that treat low-income patients, Pace said.

In other health care matters, Pace will sponsor a bill that would allow doctors at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo to treat new patients more quickly.

Now, patients who don't give consent for treatment can languish for weeks until staff members get an order from a judge to administer care, he said.

Hodge wants to speed up the process allowing out-of-state dentists to practice at the University of Colorado Anschutz campus in Aurora.

The dental school requested this legislation so that dentists with licenses from other states can practice on campus while waiting to get their Colorado license, she said.

kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361. Staff writer Ed Sealover contributed to this report.