As Gov. Mitt Romney just doesn’t seem to get his fair share of coverage in this space, let me just mention that lots of Republicans and conservatives I know are asking tough questions about the recently enacted Massachusetts plan for compulsory private insurance sold through a central clearinghouse popularly called the Connector. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has just announced his push for something similar in California, and other governors and state legislators are examining the model, too. It also promises to be a major issue within the GOP presidential primary, as Romney offers the plan as proof of his ability to effect bipartisan policy reforms and his opponents take pot shots at it for excessive government regulation.

With apologies for the inevitable wonkery, I’ll recommend this Senate testimony yesterday by Joseph Antos, a health policy scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, as a useful guide to the debate. He points out the value of a health-insurance clearinghouse in promoting market-oriented health policy while also discussing the flaws in the Massachusetts model and the missed opportunities to deregulate the insurance market.

Basically, I’d argue that Romney wasn’t wrong to pursue his approach in broad outline, but he didn’t fight hard enough for a deal with the Democratic legislature that got the details right. Conservatives must recognize that compromise isn’t necessarily a bad word, but they must also recognize when a given compromise is, indeed, a bad one.