I know you're trying to lift your lower jaw off the floor, desk, kitchen table, or ground right now, but Rick "I wasn't high when I gave that wacky speech in New Hampshire" Perry just announced he was joining the whack job brain trust of Republican governors by leaving billions of dollars that could save lives on the table and leaving health care exchanges up to the Feds.
The quote from the Texas Tribune:
"I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab," he said in a statement. "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."
This from the leader of the state than leads the nation in uninsured. The Kaiser Family Foundation lists our level of
uninsured at 25%. A figure that could be cut in half by 2019 if only the state would accept expansion, also from
Kaiser.
Talking Points memo also has a nice piece on this that includes video of Governor Good Hair on Fox News, which had the temerity to question how his decision would affect the 1 in 4 in our state without insurance.
Perry, who ran a failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this cycle, chafed when asked on Fox what his decision means for the quarter of Texans who are uninsured.
"We've got some of the finest health care in the world," he said. "So the idea that this federal government, which doesn't like Texas to begin with, to pick and choose and come up with some data and say somehow Texas has the worst health care system in the world is just fake and false on its face."
Of course, no one said Texas has the worst health care system in the world. They were just pointing out that a quarter of us have no practical way of paying for it. But, minor detail right?
Anyway, I have registered my displeasure with this decision and I encourage my fellow Texans to do the same.
First read the linked articles at TPM and Texas Tribune for ammo.
Then go to the Governor's inbox, and provide your 2 cents.