Romney faces increased scrutiny over shared healthcare advisers

{mosads}Romney has faced repeated attacks on the healthcare front, including this week when Texas Gov. Perry hit Romney hard in a web video over the similarities between the healthcare bill he implemented in 2006 as governor of Massachusetts and Obama’s healthcare bill, often referred to as “Obamacare.” Repealing Obamacare has been a significant plank in the GOP platform this cycle.

Romney pledged that on his first day in office, he would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers for all 50 states in order to give options back to the states.

Romney has fought comparisons between his bill and Obama’s throughout this campaign, focusing largely on the economic impact of the two bills and defending it as a state-by-state decision.

“I would never in a million years take what we did for our state and say, let’s impose that on every state in the country. That’s wrong,” Romney said in June, also noting that Obama never called him to consult on the bill. “I know this, Obamacare would bankrupt the nation. And Obamacare will severely impact the quality of health care for the American people. And it will be repealed.”

The Massachusetts bill’s individual mandate component has been the focus of a great deal of the criticism. Romney’s bill also created a state agency focused on helping expand insurance to the uninsured.

Gruber told the Washington Post in March that without the Massachusetts plan, “it’s likely” Obama’s federal plan, which includes a controversial individual mandate requiring everyone to purchase insurance, wouldn’t have become law.

“The plan that we put in place was put together by Republicans and Democrats,” Romney said last month, again defending the plan. “It worked in Massachusetts. States have the right to mandate. … The federal government can’t do that.”

Romney seemed to score a significant victory on the issue when former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty endorsed Romney after he dropped out as a presidential candidate. Pawlenty had been one of Romney’s most outspoken critics on the healthcare issue, and even dubbed the bill “Obamneycare.” Pawlenty has since vouched that Romney is “100 percent committed to repealing Obamacare.”

Romney has deflected a healthcare-related attack in almost every GOP debate so far this cycle, and the issue will likely come into play again at Tuesday’s debate hosted by Bloomberg News and The Washington Post and broadcast from New Hampshire.

–This post was updated at 5:31 p.m.