Texas Gov. Rick Perry has rejected parts of Obama’s landmark healthcare reform law, saying the state will not expand Medicaid or create a health insurance exchange. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Perry said he will refuse billions of dollars in federal funding rather than accept what he called “brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state.” Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people in the country, with nearly a quarter of its population, or 6.2 million people, lacking health insurance. In an interview with Fox News anchor Jenna Lee, Perry dismissed concerns for the plight of his state’s uninsured.
Jenna Lee: “The facts are, one out of four Texans is without health insurance, one out of four Texans is on Medicare or Medicaid. The health crisis, the big crisis for the country and for your state, what is the solution?”
Gov. Rick Perry: “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, you know, the worst healthcare system in the world is just fake and false on its face. The real issue here is about freedom.”
Six Republican governors have now rejected Obama’s Medicaid provision, keeping out millions of low-income people from the Medicaid expansion. Late last month, the Supreme Court upheld the core of Obama’s landmark healthcare law but also ruled states could opt out of the provision that expands Medicaid by broadening eligibility requirements.