April 12, 2006 is a day that will live on in infamy. That was the day that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed his signature socialized healthcare bill into law with Ted Kennedy standing over his shoulder. It was the first time in American history that government of any sort compelled its citizenry to purchase health insurance. It served as the catalyst for an individual mandate on a federal level, paving the road for Obamacare.
At the time, John Kerry heaped accolades on Romney, ominously suggesting that “we really need to be doing that on the national level.” Ted Kennedy praised it as “just what the doctor ordered,” and observed that we “may well have fired a shot heard round the world.” It took less than four years for the shot to metastasize into a bombardment – one that will permanently attenuate our free-enterprise economy.
So how did Romney feel about his signature accomplishment of an otherwise uninspiring one-term tenure as governor?
At the time of its passage, Romney dubbed it as a “once in a generation” achievement. He referred to his magnum opus, which created subsidies for government run exchanges (larger than those created under Obamacare), as a “landmark” achievement “to get all of our citizens insurance without some new government-mandated takeover.”
From Romney’s perspective, did he consider final passage of MassCare a meritorious ideal or a mediocre compromise watered down by the Democrat legislature?
Well, immediately after he signed the bill into law, he told Newsweek reporter Jennifer Barrett that “the final legislation incorporates about 95 percent of my original proposal.”
At the time, did Romney feel that the framework for his healthcare plan was a virtuous policy endeavor for the rest of the nation?
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Daniel Horowitz
Jake Walker