During a "Reality Check" segment about Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (NY) health care proposal, a KCNC CBS4 report by Raj Chohan on September 19 aired video of Republican candidate Mitt Romney labeling Clinton's plan “bad medicine.” Although Chohan stated that “Republican presidential candidates like Mitt Romney push for state-based, market-based health care reform,” he failed to note that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed into law health care legislation that requires every state resident to obtain health insurance -- one of the central tenets of Clinton's plan.

Before airing Romney's attack on “HillaryCare,” Chohan noted that, according to a CBS News poll, “more Americans overall are uneasy than they are confident in Hillary's approach to health care reform. Expect Republicans to echo that theme.”

However, as Media Matters for America has noted, Romney implemented a statewide plan similar to the one Clinton is proposing. As The Boston Globe reported on September 18, the “central premise of Clinton's plan -- an 'individual mandate' requiring that every American have health insurance -- is precisely what Romney proposed in the Bay State, in what was seen as a bold approach to attaining universal coverage.” The Globe also noted that one of the “few differences between Clinton's plan and the law Romney signed” is that hers “does not open any new government agency, according to the campaign, unlike the Massachusetts law, which created the Health Connector to help uninsured people obtain insurance.”

From the article “In ways, Clinton healthcare plan resembles Romney's Mass. Solution,” in the September 18 issue of The Boston Globe:

Key elements of Hillary Clinton's healthcare proposal are strikingly similar to the tenets of the health overhaul that Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts last year. But you would never guess it from the broadsides he hurled yesterday against what he called “Hillarycare 2.0” and described as “a European-style socialized medicine plan.”

“In her plan, we have government insurance instead of private insurance,” he said at a press conference in New York, held before Clinton had even unveiled her proposal. “In her plan, it's crafted by Washington; it should be crafted by the states. In her plan, we have government Washington-managed healthcare. Instead, we should rely on private markets to guide healthcare. And in her plan, you see increased taxes. The burden should not be raised on the American people.”

But the central premise of Clinton's plan -- an “individual mandate” requiring that every American have health insurance -- is precisely what Romney proposed in the Bay State, in what was seen as a bold approach to attaining universal coverage. The idea became a pillar of the law, which he signed in April 2006.

Clinton's plan and the Massachusetts law also share a guiding principle: Build on the existing employer-based private healthcare system, instead of replacing it with a government-run system.

“What Hillary proposed is in many ways the Massachusetts plan gone national, and I think that's great,” said MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, an early adviser to Romney on the healthcare reform law who has consulted with all the major Democratic presidential candidates. “We are the shot fired around the world again - there's a whole new movement in healthcare started by what we did here. And rather than claiming credit for it, Romney's running away from it.”

While the law is Romney's signature achievement as governor, on the campaign trail he has soft-pedaled or avoided mentioning elements of the law that might trouble conservative audiences, such as the extent of state government's involvement.

There are a few differences between Clinton's plan and the law Romney signed. Even though Romney said Clinton's plan is inspired by “European bureaucracies,” it does not open any new government agency, according to the campaign, unlike the Massachusetts law, which created the Health Connector to help uninsured people obtain insurance. Massachusetts also does not provide subsidies to small employers to help them provide insurance, as Clinton's plan would. [emphases added]

CBS4 also provided a version of the “Reality Check” report on its website. The online version included links to several news articles reporting on Clinton's proposal, but not a link to the Globe report.

From the September 19 broadcast of KCNC's CBS4 News at 10 p.m.:

MOLLY HUGHES (anchor): Health care will no doubt be one of the big topics in the 2008 presidential election.

JIM BENEMANN (anchor): Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan this week for universal health care. It would require all Americans to buy insurance. Businesses would have to offer it or pay into a pool for the uninsured. And no insurance company could refuse coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Her political opponents say Clinton's failed attempt to reform health care during her husband's administration makes her the wrong person to do it now. But Senator Clinton has turned some of those past mistakes into an advantage. CBS4's Raj Chohan gives her a “Reality Check.”

[begin video clip]

CHOHAN: Hillary Clinton is back again with a plan her critics are already calling HillaryCare Part 2 -- her latest attempt at universal health care.

CLINTON: And I still have the scars to show from that exercise.

CHOHAN: The claim is true. Back in 1994, as first lady, Clinton's first attempt at universal health care was a spectacular failure. Conservative critics in the insurance industry mounted a devastating attack, calling the plan too big, too rigid, too arrogant, and raising concerns the plan would ration health care and limit the choice of doctors. The campaign to kill HillaryCare was so successful that it would take years before mainstream presidential candidates would bring it up again. Well, folks, the political winds have certainly shifted.

CLINTON: I believe everyone -- every man, woman, and child -- should have quality, affordable health care in America.

CHOHAN: Since her stinging defeat in the early '90s, Hillary Clinton has made nice with her biggest critics in the health care industry. In fact, her campaign coffers are now full of lobbying money from big insurance and pharmaceuticals. She's given them a seat at the policymaking table, and her Democratic critics have been quick to point that out.

JOHN EDWARDS: The only way to bring real health care reform is to end the Washington influence game, and to end it once and for all.

CHOHAN: So here's the spin. While rival Democrats will claim her past failures, plus her ties to big insurance, makes her the wrong person for health care reform, a recent poll suggests most Democrats and many Americans think otherwise. In fact, a CBS News poll shows most Democrats have confidence in her ability to make the right decisions on health care. And most Americans overall think her past experience will help her reform health care if she's elected. But there is more to the story. The same poll also shows more Americans overall are uneasy than they are confident in Hillary's approach to health care reform. Expect Republicans to echo that theme.

ROMNEY: HillaryCare continues to be bad medicine.

CHOHAN: Still, even as presidential Republican presidential candidates like Mitt Romney push for state-based, market-based health care reform, the advantage on this issue has clearly shifted to Democrats -- and Hillary Clinton in particular. I'm Raj Chohan. That's “Reality Check.”

[end video clip]

BENEMANN: You can see all of Raj's “Reality Check” reports and read his notes and sources as well. Just visit CBS4denver.com.