Grace-Marie, another aspect of Romneycare strengthens both your point, and Avik’s, namely the history of health-reform efforts in Massachusetts. It’s crucial to recall that Massachusetts was one of eight states that adopted sweeping health reforms during the 1990s after the Clinton health-reform effort failed. These reforms were all based on the disastrous scheme of “guaranteed issue” — the essence of Obamacare — and without exception all those reforms produced varying degrees of disastrous results. In most cases private insurers were largely driven out of the individual-insurance market (i.e., the market outside federally regulated group plans), and in several states, the reforms were fully repealed within just a few years. (I went into all of this in more detail in my Supreme Court amicus brief on severability in the Obamacare case)
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