Anthony Wright is executive director of Health Access California, the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition. He blogs daily at the Health Access Weblog and is a regular contributor to the Treatment.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is not the only Republican Governor trying to rewrite history, distancing himself from the new federal health reform law that mirrors the proposal he once championed for his own state. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing it, too.

To be fair, Schwarzenegger has tempered his remarks, highlighting positive elements of the health reform, and has stated a commitment to implement the new reforms. But he and others in his Administration have also complained about the cost to the state, saying it would cost California $2 to 3 billion more, largely in Medicaid expenses, than the state-based reform he supported but that ultimately failed to pass two years ago.

Key California members of Congress responded, saying that any new cost the state will incur needs to be weighed against the more than $100 billion in benefits the state will receive. But the Governor also just misstates the comparison. His California health reform proposal may have been better in some respects, but two years ago Governor Schwarzenegger would have jumped at the financing arrangement the new federal law offers.

Back then, Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal was to expand Medicaid to all people at less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Since Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, he was asking federal permission to extend California’s standard financing arrangement, in which the feds and California covered an equal share, to more people (mostly adults without children at home, sometimes called the “medically indigent”).