Westby joined labor, religious, political and health care activists at a rally at the Bushnell in Harford Saturday. Like many who attended, he's been rallying troops and grabbing legislators' ears to try to seize momentum to cover the state's 400,000 residents and get portable, preventive care for all.

Now one busy month remains in the state legislative session. Several versions of health care reform are on the table. Whether any significant measures will pass remains unclear.

Some of Westby's union's members don't have health care. Others, like these New Haven janitors, do. In either case, having portable care is essential. Working on contract, some members "risk losing their job tomorrow -- if they lose their job, they lose their health insurance." Westby supports both the single-payer plan and State Senate President Donald William's "Medicare for All" proposal, which would expand existing governmental aid to reach more people.

Getting either passed would require a shift in priorities, he said. "The governor stood up on education. It's going to take courage in recognizing that health care is a right."

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, who had pushed universal health care to the forefront of the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, called the passage of such a law "the great missed opportunity of this legislative body at this point. It seems to have slipped off the agenda."

He cited a few obstacles that remain to be overcome. First: UHC would have to be a fiscal priority. "The governor turned the debate of the state resources to education funding" this year. There's "limited support among leadership" for making a fiscal commitment to UHC at this point. Legislators "see other things as priorities -- like how we fund schools."

"There's one month left in session -- frankly, the groundwork hasn't been laid" to establish the necessary political and financial support for a universal plan, said DeStefano. That means finding a way to pay for it -- he had suggested closing corporate tax "loopholes" -- and buy-in from insurance companies. "Insurers are pretty large centers of interest -- there's a lot of work that would need to be done."

While DeStefano wasn't counting on getting a universal plan passed this legislative year, he said, he thought the hurdles would be eventually cleared. Lack of affordable healthcare is not only "one of the largest small business issues in the state," but is increasingly affecting the middle class: "It's a middle class issue, and when something becomes a middle-class issue, it tends to get acted on."

"I think it's going to happen," said the mayor, seeing off a busload of Fair Haveners to Saturday's rally. "You're getting a critical mass of interest that something needs to happen."

Up at the Bushnell appeared another face from the 2006 campaign trail, Tom Swan. Universal health care was a big part of senatorial hopeful Ned Lamont's campaign, which Swan ran. Swan's now back at work as executive director of the Connecticut Citizens for Action Group. What did he see as obstacles between getting health care reform passed? "Insurance companies and their tool -- the CBIA [Connecticut Business & Industry Association]", which opposes a single-payer plan and employer mandates to provide health coverage.

The rally drew fewer than a dozen state legislators. Those who gathered remained optimistic that some small steps could be made, despite the apparent lack of legislative will for enacting sweeping reform.

State Rep. Chris Donovan, the House majority leader (pictured, with arm raised), said he thought some combination of existing proposals, including creating bigger pools for municipal employees to join so they can get more buying power on health plans, could be passed. He supports a single-payer system, which by opponents' calculation would cost the state $18 billion, a calculation critics have challenged as a wild overestimate that fails to take into account savings to the overall system. Donovan and others maintain that the state already pays $22 billion for health care, making the switch cheaper, but the single-payer option has not been popular among legislators.

Sen. Jonathan Harris, D-West Hartford, who attended the rally, said the legislature is poised to do something about health care this year, but he was reluctant to endorse a single-payer system, which would call for complete reform. He said it looks like the legislature will increase enrollment in Medicaid programs, like HUSKY and SAGA and expand community-based health centers and the use of electronic medical records.

Paul Wessel, campaign organizer for the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said building public pressure around the idea of universal health care is more important right now than what specific legislation's on the table.

"My position is, until the last hour of the legislative session, what bills are out there is irrelevant" -- if there's the legislative will, language can always be slipped into a pending health care reform bill to achieve whatever universal health care law people decide needs to be passed, said Wessel. Two bills addressing the state's uninsured will come before the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee, which is chaired by New Haven's State Rep. Cam Staples. "The New Haven legislators have an opportunity for leadership here."

Independent Capitol Correspondent Christine Stuart contributed reporting to this story.