Governor Won’t Expand Medicaid
Governor Rick Perry joins a growing list of governors to challenge the federal government’s legal right to force states to expand Medicaid.
Texas will not expand Medicaid or implement a state health exchange following the Supreme Court's upholding of the constitutionality of Obamacare, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday.
"If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Perry said in a statement Monday. His office said that he will be
He sent a letter on Monday to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking her to relay the message to President Barack Obama that Perry opposes the provisions "because both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state."
"I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab. Neither a 'state' exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better 'patient protection' or in more 'affordable care,'" said Perry, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January. "They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care."
Texas was one of 26 states that challenged in court the 2010 law known formally as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
