According to an article...

...in Politico (my emphasis):

Not so long ago, Tim Pawlenty was praising Mitt Romney as an “unbelievably bright and nimble and gifted public policy leader in Massachusetts.”

“We have been studying, very diligently, the Massachusetts model, about how that would apply to Minnesota, some of the unique differences, advantages and disadvantages to Minnesota,” he said at a Minneapolis health reform forum in 2006, discussing fixes to the broken system.

At that conference, to the surprise of many, Pawlenty proposed that Minnesota “chart a path toward universal coverage,” starting with thousands of uninsured children. Pointing out that mandated automobile coverage still leaves a double-digit portion of Minnesota’s population uninsured, Pawlenty said “a mandate by itself is not much of a solution.”

There was some qualifying language: “In Minnesota as to the access issue, I believe we should move towards universal coverage. Everybody should be in a health plan of some sort. How we get there becomes important, I think a mandate by itself is potentially helpful, but is not an answer by itself.”

Then in 2007, he advocated setting up an insurance exchange — now a key piece of the federal reform that he now says interferes with the free market.