I tend to lead this way. We need something. But it should be private and not public. It should be affordable and good care, patients, doctors and nurses shouldn't suffer. I don't think that is extreme. I think that is compromise.
OMAHA - Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney headlined a sold-out state Republican Founders Day Celebration on Friday, saying President Barack Obama was bringing change as promised but of the wrong kind.
Obama isn't just moving away from the policies of former President George W. Bush, Romney said, but taking the country back to the time of President Harry Truman, "moving the United States away from its role as ardent advocate of democracy and civil rights to one where it is more of a neutral arbiter."
Romney told reporters of his plans for the speech before the dinner, which was closed to reporters.
The crowd of 600 at Omaha's DoubleTree Hotel raised $100,000 for the state Republican war chest, with tickets ranging from $65 to $500 per seat. The sum was slightly more than the $89,000 Romney raised in Nebraska for his failed 2008 presidential bid.
The former governor of Massachusetts is considered by some to be the probable early front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, should he choose to enter the race. Romney said Friday he was not looking beyond his current efforts to secure Republican victories in key Senate and gubernatorial races in 2010.
Outside the hotel, about 20 protesters held signs saying "Reform Now" and "$5,000 will buy a lot of health care," the latter referring to the $5,000 price tag for a table of 10.
Reporters also focused their questions on health care reform, including a provision of the Massachusetts health plan requiring everyone to have health insurance, adopted while Romney was governor.
"The idea of everybody being included makes sense," Romney said.
He had originally proposed, he said, that people be required to carry insurance or prove that they had the means to pay for their own care. State lawmakers rejected the second part, he said.
Romney said he does not support someone who can afford health insurance going without it, receiving health care without paying, thus forcing doctors and hospitals to pass those costs on to others.
But in Massachusetts, he said, everyone was insured through private companies, not a public plan, which he called an opening for a single-payer option, typically referred to as socialized medicine. The state's plan also did not break the bank, he said.
Romney added he was not advocating the Massachusetts model be forced on the rest of the country. Instead, he proposed, states should be allowed to create their own plans, "not propose a one-size-fits-all for every state in America and unfunded mandates."
Romney denied that Republicans have limited their role to blocking health reform efforts.
"The Republican Party has put out a lot of health care plans," he said. Only Massachusetts has got everyone insured, he said. "Republicans have led on this."
Democrats, the party in power, have not attempted to craft a bipartisan health reform measure, Romney said.
If Obama were to propose simply that insurance companies be unable to drop coverage for those who get sick, that there be no discrimination for pre-existing conditions, reforms could be easily approved, he said.
For health reform to succeed, Romney said, "The president doesn't need one Republican vote."
What has delayed the approval of Democratic reform plans, he said, is that some Democrats "are hearing what's being said across the country, that a government takeover of health care is not acceptable."
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