insurance more accessible and affordable to small business and individuals . President Obama has been heavily criticized by conservatives because his plan includes a mandate for all individuals to have insurance or pay a penalty . Romney , too , has joined those criticizing the president , yet his plan in Massachusetts included just such a mandate . This idea was originally proposed by conservative groups as a measure of personal responsibility and an alternative to a single-payer system advocated by many progressive organizations . Romney believes it is alright to have a state require all to have coverage but that it can not be mandated by the federal government . Romney contends the Massachusetts plan required no new funding , whereas the Obama law calls for nearly a trillion dollars in increased taxes and cuts in projected Medicare spending over 10 years . What Romney does n't say is that the Massachusetts plan is partly funded with earmarked federal dollars and partly with state funds generated by a tax increase previously enacted to pay for a universal coverage plan that was never implemented . Unfortunately for Obama , there was no larger entity to support his plan . He
Waltham , Massachusetts -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal President Obama 's universal health care law if he is elected president . Critics find his position rather strange , arguing that the plan he helped develop when he was governor of Massachusetts is quite similar in design to the Obama plan . Romney disputes his critics , saying there are important and fundamental differences between the plans . Who is correct ? In actuality , both plans draw extensively from legislation offered by President Nixon in January 1974 . In a book just published , `` Power , Politics , and Universal Health Care , '' David Shactman and I explain how Romney and Obama used the same approach as Nixon to lower the number of uninsured . All three built their system on private , employer-sponsored insurance in which all but the smallest employers had to provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty . All utilized Medicare to insure the elderly and an expanded Medicaid-type program to insure the poor . All provided subsidies to low-income individuals and small employers . The Romney and Obama plans created state-based private insurance exchanges to make