Obama: Romney ‘pretending’ he came up with different healthcare plan

Mitt Romney is “pretending” he came up with a healthcare plan different from President Obama’s, Obama said in a radio interview that aired Thursday.

As Massachusetts governor, Romney signed a healthcare law that became the model for Obama’s controversial overhaul. Obama emphasized those similarities in an interview with Public Radio International.

“We designed a program that actually previously had support of Republicans — including the person who may end up being the Republican standard-bearer and is now pretending like he came up with something different,” Obama said.

{mosads}Obama also knocked Republican governors who have said they won’t implement the federal law’s key feature — state-based exchanges where individuals and small businesses can buy coverage, often with the help of a government subsidy.

“It will be very hard for any governor to explain why it is that they’re not giving people — and small businesses, not just individuals — an opportunity to get cheaper health insurance, better deal, more protections because of some ideological argument that they’re having with the president,” he said. “And when people see that in fact it works, it makes sense — as it’s, by the way, working in Massachusetts — then I think a whole bunch of folks will say, ‘Why aren’t we trying it as well?’ “

The Supreme Court will hear three days of oral arguments next week over whether another key feature of the healthcare law — the requirement that almost everyone buy insurance — is constitutional. Several GOP governors have said they won’t implement the law until the Supreme Court rules.