Mitt Romney's Health-Care Dilemma

March 29, 2010 -- Mitt Romney, the once and likely future Republican presidential candidate, is back in Iowa today.

The stated purpose of his visit, which includes speeches in Des Moines and Ames, is to promote his new book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness."

The broader mission, however, is to begin to reintroduce Romney to the state that holds the first in the nation presidential nominating contest.

When Romney ran for president in 2008, his most delicate task was trying to convince social conservatives that he was, in the words of former Romney adviser Mike Murphy, "a pro-life Mormon" who had been "faking it as a pro-choice friendly" when he began his political career in liberal Massachusetts.

Now that Romney, 63, is gearing up for a second presidential run, his most challenging task might be convincing Republicans that the health-care plan he approved in Massachusetts is not a template for the health-care plan approved at the federal level by President Obama.

"Romney has a huge albatross around his neck, which really wasn't an issue in 2008: We are implementing a national health care plan that is very much like what he did in Massachusetts," a Republican strategist unaligned in the 2012 race who was granted anonymity so he could be more candid told ABC News.

By some measures, Romney's Massachusetts health-care plan should be a signature achievement: The Bay State has succeeded in raising the amount of insured residents to 97 percent by extending subsidies to the previously uninsured.

But the costs of the plan have strained the state treasury and it was accomplished through the kinds of mandates that are anathema to some Republican activists.

Similar to Obama's recently enacted federal health-care plan, the Massachusetts plan requires individuals to buy health insurance and imposes tax penalties on those who don't.

Furthermore, both the federal and Massachusetts plans penalize businesses above a certain size that don't provide coverage to their employees.