Mitt Romney is about the fakest politician ever. He's for universal healthcare until a Democrat passes it. The only difference between the two plans is one is statewide and the other is nationwide. Both have an individual mandate.

First of all Romney always opposed ObamaCare, and has promised to repeal ObamaCare and offer all 50 states waivers from it on Day 1 of his presidency.

Second the individual mandate at the state level is a perfectly reasonable conservative policy.  It's well within state powers and an appropriate way to address the "free rider" problem of people refusing to buy insurance and then just smugly billing the taxpayer at the ER when they get sick or hurt.  Romney said "no" to that entitlement, welfare state mentality and told MA residents to take care of their own care, buy a PRIVATE health insurance plan, and not put taxpayers at risk.  That's CONSERVATIVE.

Third there are huge differences between Romney and ObamaCare.

1. MA had a left-wing legislature, with so few Republicans it could have passed a far-left, socialist style bill and simply overriden Romney's veto. Thanks to Romney's actions, what happened in MA is much more conservative and free market oriented than what would have happened if he had not been around, or had postured for perfection or nothing and gotten nothing.

By contrast, because of Obama's actions, the nation as a whole has a health care policy that is much more liberal and government-run than would have been the case had he not been around, or not been so determined to push his plan through.

2. Romney's plan was based on what the conservative Heritage Foundation proposed in the 1990s.  In fact a Heritage representative was invited to and attended the signing ceremony.

3. Romney did not raise taxes on individuals or businesses.

4. Romney did not take funds from Medicare to pay for his plan. Many seniors are unhappy that their Medicare is being cut back to fund benefits for immigrants, especially illegals.

5. Romney did not include, nor try to include, a "public option".

6. Romney did not increase spending by a trillion dollars.

7. Romney did not impose price controls on the insurance industry.

8. Romney's legislation took up only 70 pages. Obama's is a 2,000 page monstrosity of regulation and bureaucracy.

9. Romney's plan was tailored for MA, a wealthy state that already had a much lower portion of the uninsured than the USA as a whole.

10. Romney balanced the budget before attempting to reform health care.

11. Romney's plan was broadly supported in MA. Obama knew his plan was widely unpopular and pushed it through anyway.
 
12. Romney is not trying to push his MA plan on the whole country. He favors state-by-state reforms, with each state doing what it prefers and works best there.

The only difference between Romneycare and Obamacare is Romneycare covers abortions.

@Mell - Excellent point!