Romney defended Mass. healthcare mandate as ‘ultimate conservative idea’

{mosads}The Health Affairs article notes that Romney was staunchly opposed to an employer mandate but came around relatively easily on the individual mandate, at least as a matter of policy.

His aides tinkered with ways to describe the policy, under which most people must buy insurance or pay a penalty, author Martha Bebinger says in Health Affairs. Bebinger covers healthcare for Boston’s National Public Radio affiliate.

But they did not shy away from the policy, and none of the state’s elected officials came out strongly against it.

Romney faced deep skepticism from conservatives on healthcare during the Republican primary. He has defended his record in Massachusetts while saying the same model should not have been applied nationally.

Both Romney’s law and Obama’s rely heavily on a Medicaid expansion. Both also expand access to private insurance by imposing a mandate and creating a new marketplace where people can easily shop for coverage, often with help from a government subsidy.

The policy made few waves in Massachusetts, but conservatives seized on the mandate in Obama’s healthcare law to frame it as a government overreach. Nancy Turnbull, an associate dean at Harvard University, said the divergent reactions are “like living in two parallel universes.”