Romney attacks health-care plan similar to his

March 27, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Mitt Romney has a problem with Obamacare. It looks a lot like Romneycare.

The prospective Republican presidential candidate’s vulnerability on the issue was evident this week, when he was interrupted during a tour for his new book by a woman upset with the Massachusetts health-care law Romney signed as governor in 2006. That law has some of the same core features as the federal law President Barack Obama, a Democrat, signed Tuesday.

And that’s creating an uncomfortable straddle for Romney as his party makes attacking the new health-care law its main message this midterm year.

“We are up to here with Republicans not being conservative enough,” Dr. Sharon Sikora, a local dentist, said as she raised her hand over her head. “And with all due respect, governor, your health care in Massachusetts is not the be-all and end-all, and there are significant problems with that, and I wouldn’t embrace that today, either.”

Romney conceded the Massachusetts plan “isn’t perfect” and is “a work in progress,” but he put part of the blame on Democrats who overrode vetoes he believes would have improved the original plan.

And then, instead of dissociating himself from the plan as he did during his 2008 White House race, Romney complained the president didn’t tap his expertise while crafting the federal measure.

Like the new federal law, the Massachusetts plan requires individuals to buy health insurance and imposes tax penalties on those who don’t. Both plans penalize small businesses above a certain size that don’t provide coverage to their employees. And both rely on new taxes for some of their financing.

“The Massachusetts plan serves as a template for federal reform,” said Richard Powers, spokesman for the state agency that sets standards for the mandatory private-insurance plans individuals must buy. Obama’s plan “didn’t replicate everything that we have here, but it certainly drew from the important principles of it.”

Massachusetts has succeeded in raising the amount of insured residents to 97 percent, but the cost has strained the state treasury. Powers’ agency reported that 68 percent of the 407,000 who are newly insured got a partial or full subsidy for their coverage.

The Club for Growth, which raises campaign money for fiscally conservative candidates, ripped Romney this month when he declared the Massachusetts program “the ultimate conservative plan” because it requires individual responsibility.