Tim Pawlenty — who famously characterized the Affordable Care Act as “Obamneycare” because it is so heavily modeled on Mitt Romney’s health care law in Massachusetts — doubled down on his argument that President Obama and the Democrats relied on Romney’s law as a blueprint for national reform in the spin room of Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in South Carolina. But then, the former Minnesota governor went further, suggesting that Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have also embraced “elements of Obamacre”:
PAWLENTY: Newt Gingrich embraced the individual mandate and elements of Obamacare as well. Rick Santorum has embraced other elements of health care reform that are problematic relative to Democrats and Barack Obama. So don’t single Mitt out with respect to your question.
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Indeed, all three candidates supported the individual requirement to purchase health insurance coverage and Romney and Gingrich backed exchange-like mechanisms where individuals and small businesses have the advantages of large employers in purchasing coverage. They also embraced regulations that prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and subsidizing coverage for lower-income Americans. For more on the similarities between Gingrich’s and Romney’s health care proposals and the Affordable Care Act, click here and here.