September 29, 2011 8:38 pm

Healthcare reform looms over Romney campaign

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

On the day in 2006 that he signed a healthcare reform bill into law, Mitt Romney, then-governor of Massachusetts, acknowledged that the legislation would be a gbig parth of his legacy.

gBut, I have no way of telling if itfs going to be a help or hindrance down the road,h he said.

It was a prescient remark for an ambitious politician who had his eyes fixed on higher office.

Headed into a fight for the Republican presidential nomination this year, Mr Romneyfs involvement in the landmark Massachusetts legislation, which he agreed after months of negotiations with a Democratic legislature, was seen as a black mark on his record, and one that could make him virtually unelectable among Tea Party and conservative voters who oppose the federal healthcare revamp passed by Barack Obama in 2010.

That law was essentially modelled after the Massachusetts reform legislation. It has incurred the wrath of the right because, they allege, the bill represents a government takeover of the healthcare system.

But today, with just over three months to go before Republican primary voters begin casting their ballots for their nominee, the healthcare issue has not been as damaging to Mr Romneyfs campaign as some pundits suggested it would. With the national media focused on his top rival, Texas governor Rick Perry, and would-be rivals, such as Sarah Palin and Chris Christie, Mr Romney has been able, for now, to deflect attempts by Mr Perry and others to cast him as the gfather of Obamacareh.

Mr Perryfs campaign tried to make waves by pointing to changes in the text of Mr Romneyfs 2010 hardcover book gNo Apologyh and the paperback 2011 version. The later edition did not include a line in which the candidate wrote, in reference to the Massachusetts reform law, that gwe can achieve the same thing for everyoneh.

Mr Romney appears to be skating away from the criticism. A Fox News poll released on Wednesday showed that Mr Perryfs poor debate performances have relegated him to the number two spot in the polls for the first time in weeks. Mr Romney, with 23 per cent support, has won back the lead position among Republicans. But his advantage appeared to have been won on the back of Mr Perryfs mis-steps, not an increase in his own popularity. That could reflect continuing unease with Mr Romneyfs involvement in healthcare.

Like every other Republican candidate, Mr Romney has said he would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act of 2010. But that task would require Republicans first to win back a 60 seat majority in the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats. He has also repeatedly vowed that, if elected, he would issue an executive order on the first day of his presidency that would grant all 50 states waivers from their enforcement of gObamacareh.

But even conservative legal scholars who staunchly oppose the Obama law say it is far from clear whether a Romney administration would have the legal flexibility to issue waivers that would have a serious impact on the law. Randy Barnett, a lawyer who is spearheading the legal challenge to the Obama healthcare law that is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court next year, said he was unsure whether such a waiver would mitigate the individual mandate that forces every citizen to buy insurance, the provision that is most controversial to conservatives.

Although Mr Obama is a staunch defender of the landmark legislation, his own administration has said it would support changes to the act that would allow states to waive key provisions as early as 2014, if they can prove they can achieve the same results as the legislation with different mechanisms.

The Romney campaign said it supports all avenues that would lead to a repeal of the law, both in Congress and the courts and that it has proposed the 50-state waiver in the event that a congressional repeal is not possible. One campaign official said it was important to have a nominee face Mr Obama who could make a compelling case for state by state, rather than national, healthcare reform.

The campaign has not given up hope that Mr Romneyfs history with healthcare might help, after all.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.