WHEN GOV. RENDELL signed a new open-records law Thursday, dragging the state out of the Dark Ages in at least one area, he said: "This isn't health care but it's a pretty good Valentine's Day present."

Yeah, well, I'd rather have health care.

As important as pulling PA from the national near-bottom of public access to public records is (and it is, and the Legislature deserves credit for finally doing so), there's nothing more important than health care.

And Thursday, Valentine's Day, marked yet another deadline missed for legislative action to provide coverage for 767,000 uninsured PA adults - 139,000 in Philadelphia alone.

This isn't some goo-goo giveaway.

It's about doing what's right, what's best for all citizens.

It's about making real change in the relationship between government and its people, about moral leadership and even about saving money.

The cost to everyone with health coverage of providing medical services to everyone without coverage is huge.

Families USA, a non-partisan, nonprofit health-care group in Washington, says 6.5 percent of health insurance premiums go to pay for the uninsured.

On average, that's $280 a year for every covered individual, $680 a year for every covered family.

That's every year. And it's not going down.

Philadelphia Health Management Corporation says 9.6 percent of city adults were uninsured in 2000. The nonprofit public health institute's most recent data, from 2006, says it's now 14.4 percent.

It's more than a year since Rendell rightly called on lawmakers to cover the uninsured - more than 70 percent of who work - and more than two months since calls for action by Valentine's Day.

So far? Nothing.

Failure to act is callous and cold-blooded.

Excuses run to costs, and the need to be fiscally responsible.

This from a Legislature where charity begins at home.

This from lawmakers capable of finding $3.6 million for discretionary bonuses to their own employees (now subject of a criminal investigation); $6 million for shameful TV/radio ads promoting their own incumbencies; $12 million for "incidental" expenses; $20 million for discretionary "leadership" accounts; $250 million for discretionary local projects (basically earmarks); and more than $300 million to annually run their own bloated operations, pay for their annual pay raises, fat pensions and, of course, premier health-care coverage.

I've more than once said those in power would fix health care in a heartbeat if their own coverage was suspended until they do so.

How sick is it that taxes paid by working citizens help fund Cadillac care for those refusing to provide any coverage for so many of their own benefactors?

"I think there's a desire on the part of everyone in the Legislature to address the whole issue," House Republican Leader Sam Smith tells me, but only as part of the annual state budget process in the summer.

Translation? Maybe something, but nothing soon.

"I would characterize the progress as slow and difficult," says Senate GOP Leader Dominic Pileggi. "There is a long distance to cover before there's a comfort level in my caucus to advance the agenda the governor's put forth."

Translation? Don't hold your breath.

The Democratic-controlled House, which supports Rendell on this, should move legislation creating coverage. The GOP-controlled Senate should find its "comfort level."

Politics and special interests prevent enough progress in this state; if there's one issue on which to do the right thing, this is it.

Philly Democratic Sen. Vince Hughes, who, along with Sen. Vince Fumo, pushes hard for coverage for the uninsured, says, "I gotta be optimistic; 2008 is a year of opportunity."

Well, opportunity's knocking.

Lawmakers finally opened their records. Now it's time they open their hearts.