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Mass. Marks Health-Care Milestone
Hanging on either side of the dais were banners, written in a tattered-edge, faux-ancient font, that said "Making History in Healthcare."
"I want to express appreciation to Cecil B. DeMille for organizing this event," quipped Romney, who is considering a run for president in 2008, and seems likely to use his work on the bipartisan health-care bill as a talking point on the campaign trail.
  Gov. Mitt Romney (R), with other Massachusetts officials at Faneuil Hall in Boston, signs into law a bill mandating that every state resident have health-care insurance or face a fine. "You may well have fired a shot heard 'round the world," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who attended the bill signing. (By Joe Raedle -- Getty Images) |
But, after praising the bill, Romney said he would try to change it, by vetoing a requirement that employers who do not provide health insurance pay $295 per year per employee.
That piqued a response from state House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi (D).
"To change anything [is] to disturb the delicate balance that made this law possible," DiMasi said. He said after the ceremony was over that the legislature was likely to override the veto, and that he believed it was a political gesture made by Romney with a presidential run in mind: "He's looking to the horizon now."
The ceremony closed with Romney sitting down at a wooden, old-style desk and signing the bill with 14 souvenir pens -- though he left the quill pen, evidently just a prop, in its well.
"It's law, congratulations," Romney said, and the fife-and-drum corps struck up again.
The congratulations might apply most to Romney himself. He has announced he is not seeking reelection this fall, and by July 1, 2007, when the health-insurance requirement will go into effect and the new low-cost policies must be ready, he will no longer be governor.
For some in Massachusetts, the situation has parallels to 1988, when another governor -- Michael Dukakis (D) -- proclaimed that the state had solved the health-insurance problem. In that case, the plan called for a mandate on employers to provide health insurance, and victory was declared before the final financial details were worked out.
"How sweet it is," Dukakis said then at his own elaborate signing ceremony, that one featuring a gospel group. But the law was never implemented and eventually was repealed.
As Romney prepared to leave the hall, a reporter asked him if it wasn't true that he would be gone when his own health-care bill is determined to be a "success or a sham."
"It will certainly be a big step forward," Romney said first, but then he cautioned that a lot more work is needed.
"Wish I could be here to do that," he said.
