Romney: ‘Gifts’ in Obama’s healthcare law helped him win

{mosads}The paper says Romney specifically cited provisions allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans through age 26 and requiring employers to cover contraception without charging a co-pay or deductible.

“Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people,” he reportedly said.

Romney pledged throughout the campaign to repeal “ObamaCare,” and he specifically attacked the law’s contraception mandate.

His suggestion that health care was a major boon to Obama’s campaign is somewhat at odds with conventional political wisdom. The public had an unfavorable view of the health law before the election, although polls also showed that voters liked individual policies when they were described outside the context of the larger Affordable Care Act.

— This post was updated at 6:02 p.m.