The problem with getting genuine health care reform in America is that the "Today" show is so heavily booked.

What I mean is, as of this writing, there are two basic ways to go about fixing the health care problems facing our nation:

• Congress could — and I know this is a radical idea — pass comprehensive health care reform.

• Or you, the public — by which I mean every red-blooded man, woman and especially child — could take a shot on national TV.

As you've probably heard, Colorado is at the center of the health care debate. That's because we have Chubby Baby and Skinny Toddler and have therefore introduced to the nation what Michael Bennet has correctly called the Goldilocks Paradox. (OK, I added paradox, but Bennet had the Goldilocks idea. No mention of the three bears.)

It began with the chubby, healthy, breast-fed baby, Alex Lange of Grand Junction, being turned down for health insurance by Rocky Mountain Health Plans because, his parents were told, he was "too fat." His parents appealed, noting that Alex was too young to be treadmilled.

We moved on to skinny, healthy, curly-haired 2-year-old Aislin Bates of Erie, rejected by United Healthcare's Golden Rule subsidiary because she didn't meet the height and weight standards. If you get turned down by, uh, Golden Rule, try to imagine your chances with United Healthcare's other divisions.

As Bennet said on the Senate floor, insurance companies were apparently looking only for children who were "just right."

You see, Alex and Aislin had the dreaded pre-existing condition, which apparently can mean anything at all. Take the case of the Florida woman rejected, according to The Huffington Post, for her pre-existing condition — rape. Seems she had been assaulted and was taking doctor-prescribed, just-in-case anti-HIV drugs. How golden is that rule?

Chubby Baby and Skinny Toddler fought back in the traditional American way — by going on TV. It was sort of like Balloon Boy, except featuring children at actual risk and with no family "Wife Swap" history.

The Lange family went on a local Grand Junction TV station. The story was picked up by newspapers, including The Denver Post. It was then picked up by the "Today" show, which showed a kid seemingly at risk only from cheek-pinching relatives.

The Bates family turned to Denver's Channel 7. Their story was picked up by The Huffington Post, after which the family, including irresistible Aislin, was invited onto the "Today" show.

You know what happened. In both cases, the insurance companies coincidentally reversed themselves in what has become known as the "Today" Show Pre-Existing Exemption.

The problem is, it's hard to get booked on the "Today" show. I was looking at the website, which displayed, among other features, a slide show of "fashionable cats posing in wigs." How do you hope to compete?

OK, we laugh, what with the happy endings and all — except there are no happy endings, not unless Harry Reid can find 60 votes in the Senate to get health care reform passed. Until then, we have a country in which not only fat and skinny healthy babies can go uninsured but also sick babies. Imagine a country in which any baby — sick or healthy — is without health insurance, and then tell me why we don't need reform.

It's crazy, maybe as crazy as our embrace of for-profit health insurance. But it must be said that the insurance industry now favors reform that allows for universal health care — just as long as everyone is required to be in the pool.

That's how insurance works, of course: by spreading the risk. Reform — whatever Barack Obama said in the primaries — doesn't work without a mandate. It's like car insurance or, for that matter, Social Security. If you want sick babies insured, you need healthy 26-year-olds paying.

With mandates, you also need generous subsidies. You can't force people who can't afford insurance to buy it, which is what the Senate Finance Committee bill does. You also need penalties because, even with subsidies, many young invincibles will still opt out, and once again, the Finance Committee bill falls short.

Here's the hard truth: To make this work, you also need a public option. You need it to compete with private insurance to control costs. You need it because, if there's a mandate, you can't say to people that the only option they have is the one they've already turned down.

The latest news is that Harry Reid will include a public option in the combined Senate bill. My guess is it will be one that includes an opt-out clause for reluctant states. Colorado, say, can choose the public option, and Nebraska, say, can turn it down. We'd see which state would prosper.

Or, as a nation, we could stay with what we'll call our Jack Sprat model, in which the next Chubby Baby and Skinny Toddler get left out:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean.

And when they tried to get their kids insured,

The system picked them clean.

Mike Littwin writes Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-5428 or mlittwin@denverpost.com.