Romney defends health care record on the campaign trail

News outlets report on how GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is casting his health care policies as he moves toward the Tuesday's Michigan and Arizona primaries.   

The Associated Press: It's All Economy, All The Time For Romney
That was an invitation to discuss a requirement for all residents to purchase insurance, a feature that conservatives loathe in Obama's health care bill but is also present in the Massachusetts law. Romney steered clear. Instead, he said: "The first thing I'd say to him is, 'You say you copied (the Massachusetts law), how come you didn't give me a call? I'd have told you what worked, what did not work'" (Espo, 2/24).

Boston Globe: Fact Check: The GOP Debate
Mitt Romney was asked by moderator John King about a bill signed during his tenure as Massachusetts governor requiring Catholic hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. Asked if he made such a requirement, Romney responded: "No, absolutely not." …under Romney, Catholic hospitals became required to make the morning-after pill available to rape victims. In a Globe interview [in 2005], Romney said, "My personal view, in my heart of hearts, is that people who are subject to rape should have the option of having emergency contraception" (Schoenberg, 2/23).

Boston Globe: Romney Emphasizes Michigan Roots To Tea Party Crowd
On the biggest sticking point that Tea Party activists have with Romney – his health care plan in Massachusetts – he amped up his critique of the federal model that was patterned after his plan. "On every basis I can think of - it's bad policy, it's bad spending, it's bad for American people, it's bad for the practice of medicine," Romney said. "If I'm president, we're getting rid of ObamaCare" (Viser, 2/24).