The conservative heritage foundation got the idea from Switzerland. Romney then adopted it from the heritage foundation Massachusetts and Obama decided it was the path with the most Republican (and so bi-partisan) support so pushed it for the rest of the country.
Obama worked really hard to get Republican buy-in. He held that big meeting with Congress that was meant to be a sort of a summit (where they stonewalled him), and even let Pelosi kill the public option. Nothing doing; the problem wasn't that it was good or bad policy, it was that it was Obama's policy (after it was Romney's, after it was the Heritage Foundation's).
