On the presidential campaign trail, Mitt Romney points to healthcare reform as his major achievement as Massachusetts governor, presenting the plan as an example of how he used conservative principles to provide affordable health insurance for all state residents without a government takeover.

But he does not mention aspects of the plan that may hold less appeal for his Republican audiences. For example, he decries "socialized medicine" and says the Massachusetts plan is "all a private initiative, a private-based, market-based healthcare" -- omitting the fact that the state and federal governments subsidize much of the overall cost and that a public board negotiated the benefits and prices that private insurers now offer.

He wows audiences by telling them that premiums for individuals dropped from $350 a month to $175 a month, without clarifying that those figures are for the lowest-cost plan available for 37-year-olds and without mentioning that for many people, especially the elderly, premiums can be several hundred dollars more.

And he sometimes downplays the role that Democrats on Beacon Hill had in putting together the final plan.

The Massachusetts healthcare law is exceedingly complicated, and it would be difficult for Romney to explain all the nuances in a town hall-style meeting, or in TV or radio advertisements.

"What's important about the Massachusetts healthcare law is that it's working, and Mitt Romney got it done by reaching across the political aisle," Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said yesterday. "We have fewer uninsured, the cost of policies is coming down, and more and more people are taking personal responsibility for their own healthcare."

His campaign also points out that the plan has been praised by conservative groups such as the Club for Growth. Representatives from The Heritage Foundation worked with Romney on the plan and joined him for the bill signing.

Fehrnstrom said Romney plans to give a major healthcare speech on Friday to the Florida Medical Association in which he will discuss "the lessons learned in Massachusetts and how he can apply those . . . on a national basis."

"He will go into much greater specifics than he does in his stump speech," Fehrnstrom said.

But some of Romney's critics and political foes -- all strong supporters of the state's healthcare law -- say he is resorting to tricks used by candidates trying to put the best spin on their records: accentuating the positive, deleting difficult details, and taking too much credit.

"It is a creative reconstruction of the law and what actually happened . . . to fit his needs" in the presidential race, said John McDonough, executive director of the advocacy group Health Care For All.

Healthcare isn't the only area where Romney has tried to polish his record. As he explored a presidential bid, he said he turned a $3 billion budget deficit into a surplus without raising taxes, even though state officials and independent analysts have said that the deficit figure was a projection and was overstated and that Romney used fee increases to close the gap. Yesterday, he began airing a radio advertisement that suggests he cracked down on illegal immigrants by getting the authority to have State Police arrest them -- without noting that the policy was rescinded by his successor, Governor Deval Patrick, before it ever took effect.