Mitt calls Hillary's health-care plan 'socialized medicine'

ANAMOSA, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney panned Hillary Rodham Clinton's health-care plan sight unseen Saturday, eager to remind voters she failed at "socialized medicine" once before.

Speaking to more than 160 people at a Republican fund-raiser, Romney said he didn't expect anything new from the Democratic presidential candidate and New York senator. Clinton is scheduled to lay out proposals for universal coverage in a speech at a Des Moines hospital on Monday.

"She says what we need to do is have the government take over health care," Romney asserted. "The last thing we need is 'Hillary care.' The last thing we need is socialized medicine."

Mark Daley, a Clinton spokesman, brushed off the comments. "Considering Governor Romney's penchant for flip-flopping, he will be the first to endorse it on Monday," Daley cracked.

Clinton said she has learned about the need for consensus since leading the failed reform effort in 1993 and wants to "figure out how we provide universal health care without putting billions more into the system."

"She'll have health care run by Washington," Romney said. "I don't want to have the people who did the Katrina cleanup taking care of my health care."

The former Massachusetts governor favors federal incentives for states to expand affordable coverage, and not a federal guarantee that everyone is insured.

He signed a state law aimed at ensuring universal coverage in Massachusetts through a mix of subsidies, sliding scale premiums and penalties for those who do not get insurance.

Pam Domer, 59, of Anamosa, liked Romney's approach. "I don't want the government running my health care," Domer said. "I would like to have choices that are affordable to me. I like free enterprise health care."

Romney was the host at a tailgate party in Ames before the Iowa State-Iowa football game, and took the politician's way out when asked which team he wanted to win: "I'm for both teams." Iowa State won 15-13.