For the first time of the debate season, Mitt Romney came under sustained fire from his opponents for the health care law he signed in Massachusetts.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum kicked things off by emphasizing that like Obamacare, Romney’s plan attempted to expand coverage, but didn’t do anything to control skyrocketing health care costs.
Newt Gingrich offered a more measured attack against Romney — saying that it wasn’t fair to liken it to Obamacare, but said that candidly speaking it was still a “big government” program, citing a Boston Herald story reporting that a business was fined because its $750 health care plan was deemed not generous enough for Massachusetts bureaucrats put in place by Romney’s law.
He also explained that Massachusetts was in a unique position, because it received more generous Medicaid funding from the Bush administration, allowing it to experiment with Romneycare.
Romney responded by attacking Gingrich’s past support for an individual mandate.
Though Romney has been attacked in past debates on his health care record, Gingrich and Santorum offered more detailed critiques than any other opponents.
