Keith L. Martin, News Editor

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is continuing his “Let’s Make a Deal” health insurance reform game, linking up with a new national and local insurer seemingly every day over the controversial Ingenix database.

If you’re scoring at home, Cuomo has secured commitments from six companies to ditch the out-of-network reimbursement tool and kick in $90 million toward the creation of a new one. And the AG has put two other local insurers on notice to either get on the bandwagon or get run over by a lawsuit.

As I’ve stated before, this did not hurt Cuomo’s reputation as he lobbied Gov. David Paterson for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton - a position he was eventually passed over for. “Health reform” is a key buzzword these days in Washington, D.C., and Cuomo would have fit in quite nicely.

So as they say, when one door closes, another opens and in Cuomo’s case, the door may be to Paterson’s office.

It’s no news that Cuomo could be a strong candidate for governor in 2010 and a new poll shows that he has increased his lead over Paterson, dinged up a bit from the Senate debacle with Caroline Kennedy and criticism for his budget reforms.

So as Cuomo continues amassing health insurers to join his reform effort, he might just also garner additional public support at the same time from voters looking for some change come 2010.