Last Monday, Texas Governor Rick Perry sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius stating that Texas will not participate with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also referred to as Obamacare). He states that Texas will not implement the health benefit exchange or expand Medicaid
In his letter, he made the following statement:
Neither a “state” exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under the Orwellian-named PPACA would result in a better “patient protection” or in more “affordable care.” What they would do is make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to healthcare.
During an interview with Fox News, Perry also stated the following:
I can assure you that Texas and other states would find more effective, efficient ways to deliver healthcare to their citizens and do it in a way that preserves those individual freedoms.
During the same interview, when asked about the high number of Texas Residents without insurance even with a strong economy in Texas, Perry responded:
The idea that this federal government, which doesn’t like Texas to begin with – to pick and choose and come up with some data that says somehow Texas has the worst healthcare system in the world is just fake and false on its face,” he said. “Every Texan has healthcare in this state, from the standpoint of being able to have access to healthcare – every Texan has that. How we pay for it, and how we deliver it, should be our decision – not some bureaucrat in Washington D.C. that may have never been to Texas a day in their life.
Perry joins a list of eighteen other governors vowing stopping the implementation of the PPACA. Among this list are Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Florida Gov. Rick Scot and Democrat Governor from New Hampshire, John Lynch.
Again in his letter to the Secretary, Perry wrote:
I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the PPACA power grab. Thank God and our nation’s founders that we have the right to do so.
Both the Tenth Amendment Center and it’s Texas Chapter believes this is a good first step by the governor. However, Texas should continue striding towards full nullification of the PPACA. Please help the Texas Tenth Amendment Center in this goal by checking our Nullify Obamacare in Texas webpage for both activist tools and a petition to sign.
