The New American | July 10 2012
Texas Governor Rick Perry has joined the ranks of other GOP governors eager to assert the sovereignty of their states by nullifying the ObamaCare law. Perry announced on Monday that the Lone Star State will not be expanding the Medicaid program or creating the necessary healthcare exchange to implement the president’s signature legislation. As noted by Reuters, “The announcement makes Texas the most populous state that has rejected the provisions.”
Texas was one of the 26 states that challenged the healthcare law in 2010. But in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling the individual mandate — which is central to ObamaCare — is constitutional, Texas is taking advantage of the Supreme Court’s assertion that the federal government cannot take away Medicaid dollars from states that refuse to comply with the expansion of Medicaid.
Governor Perry sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking her to inform the Obama administration that Texas opposes the provisions “because both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state.”
Sebelius spokesman Keith Maley said the department “will continue to work with states to ensure they have the flexibility and resources they need to implement” the law.
But Perry is adamant. In a statement, he declared:
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.
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.” They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care.