Gov. Perry Officially Rebukes Affordable Care Act: Rejects Exchanges & Medicaid Expansion, Offers No Alternatives

Just days after a federal report rated Texas as the worst in health care given record numbers of uninsured, Governor Perry today issued an official rebuke of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (re: Obamacare.)

The page and a half letter, addressed to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, details a host of complaints against the act dealing with the encroachment on state sovereignty and overall cost of the Medicare expansion.

While this will largely not surprise many given his earlier public pronouncements, we were disappointed to note how he closed the last paragraph of the letter. The governor begins his summation,“I look forward to implementing health care solutions that are right for the people of Texas. I urge you to support me in that effort,” yet he goes on to propose no alternative policies. And although the Governor’s signature is very prominent he still left nearly half a page of paper on which we would have hoped he could have outlined some other policy ideas for the State of Texas to implement on it’s own. Or (as the statement suggests) with the possible assistance of the Dept of Health & Human Services.
(Full text of the letter below)

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