SAN FRANCISCO  Democrats in California revived a bill on Thursday that would create a single-payer, universal health care system in the state.

While the move came as questions arose over the prospects of Congress adopting national health care legislation, the author of the California bill, State Senator Mark Leno, said that the timing was coincidental. Mr. Leno said it was basically a long-planned reintroduction of a 2009 proposal that was effectively tabled because of its potential cost. But he did concede that Tuesday’s special Senate election in Massachusetts, in which Democrats lost their filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, was not completely lost on him.

“Scott Brown did not push me to do this,” said Mr. Leno, referring to the newly elected Republican senator from Massachusetts. But, he said, “as a result of Tuesday’s election, there is ever greater need for leadership in state legislatures to reform health care.”

Regardless of its relation to the debate in Washington, Republicans in Sacramento jumped at the opportunity to slam the Democratic plan, which would establish a statewide health care system to cover all residents, using a new state agency to negotiate and set fees for services and pay claims.