For starters, team Romney has begun arguing that the better indication of his policy preference would be the 2008 campaign’s white paper, not the Massachusetts model. The former, as Fehrnstrom noted in a pre-Christmas exchange with the Huffington Post, is a reflection of what Romney would do nationally — a “federalist approach to health care reform.” It doesn’t have an individual mandate but, rather, encourages states to deregulate their insurance markets.

“Mitt said repeatedly in the 2008 campaign that his plan was not designed for the nation as a whole,” said Fehrnstrom. “He said states may want to copy parts of it, and perhaps improve on its features, but he was very explicit in saying the federal government should not impose a one-size-fits-all plan on the entire nation.”…

“I’m proud of what we’ve done,” Romney said during a speech in Baltimore in February 2007. “If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be a model for the nation.”