Perry: TX Won't Implement Key Elements of Health Reform
Texas will not expand Medicaid or establish a health insurance exchange, two major tenets of the federal health reform that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld last month, Gov. Rick Perry said in a Monday morning announcement.
"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."
Perry's ...
Comments (88)
Richard Stewart via Texas Tribune on Facebook
You got to love Texas , Good Job Rick !!
Carolyn Moon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry is perfectly happy to let people die and to bankrupt Texas while doing it. The only reason he doesn't want the Federal money is that he hasn't figured out how to steal it yet.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Socialize healthcare? Nope. RomneyCare = ObamaCare = GOP healthcare reform.
James Lester via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thankfully he has no choice.
Jose B. Gonzalez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What an idiot...
Sunny Long via Texas Tribune on Facebook
But Texas will TAKE THE MONEY in form of block grant...they just won't pass it on to the people for health care! They do that already with federa (our pooled tax dollars)l food stamps, etc.
Charles A. Siller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Wonder if RickyBobbie has learned to count to 3 yet?
Gary Skaggs via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In other words, the Grand Obstructionist Party's health care plan is "If you are poor or have a pre-existing condition, it sucks to be you".
Robert Ruiz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
never mind that one in four residents of this hell on earth have no access to affordable healthcare. they are after all mostly hispanic, black or poor white. you know the defenseless and largely disenfranchised by jim crow compassionate conservative christians.
ceola long
After the recent incident people think the only place an American in USA can be guaranteed appropriate medical care (at the top of the list/front of the line) is in prison but good alernative for now is "Penny Health" check it out
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Good job Rick? Not so much. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/06/texas-health-care-system-ranks-worst-in-nation/
Tim Starry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
we apparently don't believe in science either
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/texas-wont-adopt-common-science-standards-anytime-/
Jeff Dodson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Y'all are missing the point. It's not our federal government to reform the healthcare, maybe force a state to come up with their own plan, BUT OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS OVER STEPPING THEIR BOUNDS. It's to big. States n
Know better what they need, besides these issues are insurance company issues not people, the prexisting care, the company's are the ones not doing it. Put the restrictions on the company's NOT PEOPLE. If you expand Medicaid, although its a needed program, but that and welfare NEEDS REORM. We have WAAAYYYYY to many people on it because they are lazy. Start wheening them off and force them to get a job. I say GOOD JOB RICK PERRY
Carlyn Short via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thanks, Gov. good hair, you and your trs cronies took my health insurance away last summer, and now you're going to make sure I can't get any? WELL EFFING PLAYED...
Sharon Cooper Morgan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry is a bum steer!
Steve Mabry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
another reason we need a regime change in Austin !
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jeff, No, YOU are missing the point. The restrictions are on the health insurance company. The uninsured IS the problem. If states know better what they need, why are there so many uninsured in Texas? There are people that choose not to have health insurance that can afford health insurance but wait until they get sick then they cannot get health insurance. These individuals are freeloaders. They cause your taxes and health insurance premiums to increase. Texas so called health care reforms (tort reform) has done nothing to decrease the cost of health care/premiums OR increase physicians in Texas. All tort reform has done is take away your constitutional right/access to court/trial by jury but it sure has increased profits for health insurance companies.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jeff, get the facts NOT fiction regarding Texas TANF. http://www.tanf.us/texas.html
Debbie Spencer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jeff, like many conservatives, will not read your information Karen. They prefer to think that anyone requiring help is lazy, drug addicted, or just not worth their time. I have posted individual excerpts in direct response to their allegations and they just flat don't care. If the party says it's bad, then they obviously know what they're talking about and don't feel the need to question. They are a bunch of heartless, greedy, pricks. Just like out good governor.
Matthew Jerome via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Turd.
Dale Curry
Not that anyone is surprised that Perry would play politics over what is good for the state and her citizens
Another 99%
Denying people opportunity for better health, heathcare, is just a DeathCamp Policy by the GOP. How many have to be mutilated, die, be dnies d care, before the Texas Voter wake up , and throws out these JackBooted Thugs.
And they are JackBooted Thugs.
Wally Parnel via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jack booted corrupt thugs, is the Texas GOP Party.
Charlie N. Browning via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So fired.
Robert Chapman
During the Obamacare debate back in 09, the GOP claimed Obamacare would result in health care rationing.
Now Perry is denying access to health care.
Which party is that supports health care rationing?
Tommy Ashley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
California is a great state. They have all kinds of free stuff, try it there.
Robert Chapman
Y'all are missing the point. It's not our federal government to reform the healthcare, maybe force a state to come up with their own plan, BUT OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS OVER STEPPING THEIR BOUNDS. It's to big. States n
Jim Dodson is wrong in this opinion. Medicine has changed enormously since the tenth amendment was ratified. Binding the law to 18th century doctrines is not what the framers of the constitution intended not is it sensible.
Medicine, which draws tools, techniques and even personnel from the entire planet, is too big for a a state government, even one as large and variegated as Texas, to effectively police and govern.
Tim Starry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No but you're entirely ok with socializing religion and using government power to enforce your narrow view of what is moral.
Limited government my ass.
Ann Mcelhaney via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If you want your health insurance at the cost of your freedom, then you have your hero in Washington. States have wanted to losen the controls on health insurance companies for years but the Feds have controlled that and limited your access and reduced competition. I had no ins for years and when I got it and changed jobs, I lost coverage for 12-18 months and also had the pre-existing thing tagging along. I still would pick that over losing my liberty. At 70 this plan lets you die if you have a stroke and end up in ER so kiss your mom and dad goodbye!
Kris Seago via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ann, can you share the specific passage of this or any act that "At 70 this plan lets you die if you have a stroke and end up in ER?"
Kathy Day via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Under Obama care… the government picks up the bill 100% the first year ... next 95% … next 90% until it gets back to the rate that the government gives Texas NOW! During that time MILLIONs of Texans get health insurance and clinics open up ,so all Texans no longer have to go to the Emergency room but can see a doctor BEFORE their health problem becomes a BIG problem . This will drives down the cost of Insurance for all Texans which puts more money in all our pockets AND Texans are not dying because they have no health care. Perry is a stupid, horrible man and I am ashame to say he is the governor of my sate. ... He needs to GO!!!
Kathy Kennemer Genet via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If Rick Perry and the GOP were disturbed by the fact that 1 in 4 Texans were without health insurance, they would have started a state plan. But they didn't, and they won't, because it just doesn't matter to them. What happens when it is 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 of us? They will crow about our economy. Yes, we may all be working, but Perry's utopia is that Texas is the cheap labor force just North of the border. I'm glad the federal government takes over when states willingly neglect their citizens. We are good people, held hostage to the whims of a moron.
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In 2010 alone, Texas spent $4 billion on ER care for the uninsured. Texas is the dumbest state in the USA with the dumbest governor & legislature.
Roland Spickermann via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mr. Jeff Dodson, Governor Perry wasn't worried about government overstepping its bounds when he quietly took over $20b in stimulus-money from Washington, while publicly denouncing the stimulus. This is not principle on his part but an inability to make any political capital.
Andrew Brown via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No, Rick, there was no doubt that this was exactly what you'd say.
Kenneth Franks
Perry is trying to stay relevant. He gets to be on FOX T.V. giving his opinion. Not taking the money will make healthcare more expensive in Texas and will keep us last in uninsured residents.
Jim Hsu via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Not surprising to me.
Not only is this a purely symbolic move that hurts its residents in order for Rick Perry and the Tea Baggers just to prove a political point, Texas only prefers the "slush fund" kind of federal subsidies without directions on how to use them -- and billions and billions of it yearly -- so that it can use to patch giant craters in the so-called "Texas Miracle" that's actually more of a mirage.
Heaven forbid that the federal government actually specifies how that money be used, even if it is for a dire need in a state with one of the worst records of covering health care needs for its poorer residents.
Kathy Day
Under Obama care… the government picks up the bill 100% the first year ... next 90% and so on each year until it gets back to the rate that the government gives Texas right NOW! During that time MILLION of Texans get health insurance and clinics are built and open up , so all Texans no longer have to go to the Emergency room but can see a doctor BEFORE their health problem becomes a BIG problem , AND, Texans are not dying because they have no health care. This will drives down the cost of Insurance for all Texans which puts more money in all our pockets and not just in the pockets of the big Insurance Companies and the Good Old Boys that Perry likes so much…
Rick Perry is a horrible Governor ... He needs to GO!!!
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ann, that is a GOP LIE. http://www.factcheck.org/2012/01/neurological-death-panels/
Tracy McNally King via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Jeff, I would argue that you are the one "missing the point". People are dying of preventable illnesses and it's not because they are "lazy".
Jeff Dodson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Y'all missed my point, let me capitalize it. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO MANDATE YHE STATES TO COME IP WITH THERE OWN REFORM, ONE THAT FOTS THEIR STATE !!!!!!!!
Jeff Dodson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sorry fir the typos
Jeff Dodson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
For
Melia Newman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We have had this states rights vs. federal power argument twice before. The first time was when they threw out the Articles of Confederation and adopted our current Constitution, which instituted a stronger federal government. The only thing that held it up was they insisted on the Bill of Rights, which established the rights of citizens, not the rights of states. The second time we had a war, the North won and it was determined that really federal government is to be stronger than the states. Get over it. Most of us like this system anyway. Can we please implement the health care program that most of us like now. Democracy and all that. Oh and can we vote out this idiot yet?
Renee E. Babcock via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In other words, he won't be party to helping the people of this state. After all, he's got great "socialized" (state-provided) health care, why should he worry about those who don't?
Lesley Taylor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The Individual Mandate was a Republican idea, presented by Republicans at the Heritage Foundation years ago. The only reasons they are against it now is because a Democrat got Health Care reform passed.
Lee Dunkelberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry would much prefer to bankrupt the state by selling it off to foreign companies.
Audrey Fisher via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Bigger picture: If Perry continues with this, UT hospitals will lose huge dollar's for Medicaid treatment cost and uninsured medical treatment via DSPRO. Without those $$$ from the FED, they may have to cut jobs / services, a lose/lose for everyone in TX.
Tracy McNally King via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jeff, with all due respect, you continue to miss the point. You want Texans to trust Perry and the Legislature to fix our healthcare problems? I wouldn't trust them to come up with a healthy grocery list for my family let alone a viable solution for healthcare in this state. Look at what they've done to our education system! Perry and pals, I honestly believe, do not care about helping real Texans. They are only interested in us if we can help grow their pocketbooks.
Audrey Fisher via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Susan McCombs is traversing the state saying that here in TX, we either have healthcare or education but not both. So she is admitting that GOP have been an epic failure in managing $$$$ and of course, magically, it's the taxpayer's fault. really?
Kathleen Painter via Texas Tribune on Facebook
His ignorance shines in the body of a decomposing coyote. Idiot full of redneck spite.
Glenda Hawthorne
Perry is an ignorant, sadistic moron who alway panders to the extreme right wing nuts. How could we expect anything less from him. He's so predictable.
m herrera
I am ashamed that Rick Perry is an Aggie. With his idiotic thinking he gives our school a bad name, a very bad name. SMH
Lark Jarvis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Last place--50th of 50-- is perfectly fine for the small town real estate mogul/patsy.
mike p
Perry is an absolute wh0re for every other kind of federal monetary injection. Wonder why he'd want to pull out on this grand opportunity? Maybe he doesn't want to give up the dubious distinction of having the highest uninsured rate in the entire nation.
Tim Strawderman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What astounds me is that Mr. Perry and his cronies complain that the federal governement is intruding on our affairs, but Perry as ABSOLUTELY NO solution for how to address lack of access to health care in this state...nothing, nada, zilch. If Mr. Perry and our idiotic Legislature won't take care of us, I'm glad to let the federal goverment do it.
Gilly Harris via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Hopefully he won't be our governor again and the state will elect someone who isn't so ignorant and self-serving. God I really detest this guy.
Terry Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry's a moron.
Rudy Gonzales
Rick Perry is showing how out of touch he really is. There are people who need to have health care coverage, but he doesn't want to participate because Texas would have to follow the federal laws of Medicaid and Perry doesn't want to. Perry has no character. This "Deer in the Head lights" is taking Texans health down the tubes without consulting Texans. It's the minority governing and controlling the masses. Perry must go! Vote Perry out if he runs!
Lisa Reeb Barnes via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Good move for a state with the most uninsured people in the country!!!!!!!
Nancy Baughn via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I truly despise him! He is decimating our education and healthcare to the detriment of generations of Texans!!!!!
Jerry Okafor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Does it really matter if the feds or state gov't did it? Won't that still be gov't doing something for healthcare. And if there's no mandate to pool money to lower insurance buy-in , no type of insurance will work. This is just stubbornness and ideology.
Russ Waddill
All of you Perry conservatives who support rejecting this program are too blinded by your opposition to think about the absurdity of your argument. So let me talk really slow and see if you can follow this line of reasoning.
CURRENT PLAN: 25% of Texans are uninsured so they delay getting any care until their condition worsens and becomes critical. They then walk into the emergency room and acquire the most expensive form of care and don't pay, forcing those of us who have jobs and pay for insurance to cover the cost. That is what most people would call "free-loading", or some Republicans call being "lazy".
UNDER AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: The uninsured would be required to actually take personal responsibility for their care and buy some form of health insurance so you and I wouldn't have to cover the expense of their lack of ability or desire to plan for health issues. How is that "free-loading"?
Which plan sounds more like socialism?
Don't tell me it is a federal government takeover, until you can tell me what Governor Perry and the Republican Party have planned to insure the millions of Texans who keep spending my money unwisely. The uninsured people are not taking personal responsibility (a core tenet of 'freedom'), caused by either choice or inability to acquire affordable insurance, and it is fiscally irresponsible to continue down the same path.
Russ Waddill
All of you Perry conservatives who support rejecting this program are too blinded by your opposition to think about the absurdity of your argument. So let me talk really slow and see if you can follow this line of reasoning.
CURRENT PLAN: 25% of Texans are uninsured so they delay getting any care until their condition worsens and becomes critical. They then walk into the emergency room and acquire the most expensive form of care and don't pay, forcing those of us who have jobs and pay for insurance to cover the cost. That is what most people would call "free-loading", or some Republicans call being "lazy".
UNDER AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: The uninsured would be required to actually take personal responsibility for their care and buy some form of health insurance so you and I wouldn't have to cover the expense of their lack of ability or desire to plan for health issues. How is that "free-loading"?
Which plan sounds more like socialism?
Don't tell me it is a federal government takeover, until you can tell me what Governor Perry and the Republican Party have planned to insure the millions of Texans who keep spending my money unwisely. The uninsured people are not taking personal responsibility (a core tenet of 'freedom'), caused by either choice or inability to acquire affordable insurance, and it is fiscally irresponsible to continue down the same path.
George H
If the Texas Democrat party wants to pay for somebody's health insurance, they are more than welcome to do so.. just don't make the rest of us do it because we can't afford to pay that and eat too.. Hey maybe if they were smart, they would find a way to make health care cheaper instead of throwing more money at it.
Bea McGuire via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Just looking at these posts, looks like Perry is 2 to 35. Lets' hope these figures relate to his defeat in the next election. I love my state but distest what it's become under Perrys' egotisical leadership.
Andy Miller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Go Texas!!!!!!!
Weben Had
As a Texas Conservative who votes Republican 99% of the time, I can say without a doubt that The Texas Republican establishment as well as the Republican establishment in Washington has dropped the ball on affordable healthcare for all Texans as well as all Americans. I'm totally ashamed that Texas is at the bottom of the list regarding healthcare quality and being insured. The company that I work for is small and doesn't have an employee healthcare program so I have had to purchase my own. The premiums had doubled and the plans benefits decreased making the plan totally worthless and senseless. This was like giving money away for nothing. All this took place even before Obama got into office! I believe in free market but the insurance lobbyist have been in the back pockets of every elected politician in Texas for years and are still vying for more!
I admit that I am worried about the cost of Obama care on our children and the possibility of rationing healthcare but I can tell you now that I'm already rationing healthcarde bc I can't afford it! I believe we have got to hold our politicians to the fire on this subject and not completely do away with some of the good aspects of the Affordable Care Act! Being able to increase competition would allow premiums to be more affordable right from the start and to have Perry say " No deal" blows my mind as well as my vote for the establishment. I'm sick of lobbyist taking control and I can see why people are fed up with congress and state legislatures. We are headed down a dangerous path if we continue to let our elected be catered to insurance companies. Texas and Perry have become a JOKE regarding healthcare and illegal immigration.
Neil Moyer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Still a dope!
Joel Stanford via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I find it rather hilarious that the only people defending Perry in this thread seem to have severe grammatical deficiencies and/or are prone to rumor mongering.
Caitlin Gilchrist via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Jeff: The ACA DOES give states the opportunity to create their own reforms tailored to their specific needs. Perry has opted not to take this route, which means Texas will instead be subject to the federal plan. The small government, states' rights governor is refusing to follow what he preaches in the name of making a political stand that will give the federal government more control over our state's health care. Remind me again how this is Obama's fault?
David Curbello via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry is in the pocket of the Insurance Lobby. Texas politicions have historically been controlled by the Insurance Companies. They are more powerful than the Oil Companies in Texas.
Jordan Mandelberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The Supreme Court is just that, SUPREME. The Attorney General shouldn't be receiving a contempt vote. These GOP governors that refuse the law of the land (unless convenient to their needs) should be held in contempt!
todd wilson
Rick Perry is a sexually repressed gerbil licker.
Recall him!
jpt51
I am not surprised with the announcement.... A year ago the good governor held a rally in Houston saying we need to all thank God and follow his ways. Yet, given the opportunity to put his faith into practice, Gov. Perry falls flat on his face.
Hell no, we're not going to spend money on the poor but hey, it's okay to help a friend and campaign contributor Red McCombs with a commitment to giving him a quarter of a billion dollars for Red's current hobby, Formula 1 racing in Austin.
Why are we willing to allow our state leaders to get away with turning our backs on the helpless and allowing more kids to be uninsured than in any other state?
Wake up Texas, you've been had - again!
Jeff Dodson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ha Obama is in the pockets of Lobbyists. If he weren't he would have put all the restrictions and regulations on the insurance company's and of the people. Make it afford, AND NOT JUST BY CALLING IT AFFORDABLE, and then make people buy it. It's just like Auto insurance.. Let it stay private and let more company's in and it drives prices down, then mandate for people to buy their own policy's . It's simple but this beurocracy government we currently have just HAS TO CONTROL PEOPLE. As COLONEL ALAN WEST SAID, it's modern slavery
Diana Baskin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Jeff. How can you say good job Perry when he has no plan to help people who need Insurance. Good job for doing nothing or anything but Obamacare? Makes no sense when he has no real plan to help the uninsured. If States are opting out what are they going to do about people dying for lack of Insurance. Everyone on Public Assistance isn't on it because they are lazy. Texas isn't the richest State in the Nation. A lot of jobs are part-time so they don't have to offer benefits. Perry is an idiot.
Diana Baskin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Jeff There are restictions and regulations on the Insurance Companies and it will remain private. Where are you getting your information? The State will just have something like stores where people will be able to shop for the lowest rates. It is a given that most people at one time or another will get sick and need Health
Care so they making them pay something rather then wait until they get sick and becoming a drain on the system by going to emergency. Also since Insurance Companies have to Insure people with pre-existing conditions they can't have them waiting until they get sick they get Insurance. That would be like waiting until you have a car accident then getting Auto Insurance. They don't make money on the sick they make it on the well. I think your hatred is getting in the way of your common sense. Please don't compare this to slavery it is iinsulting.
james billington
He can grandstand all he wants now, but when the Federal government writes that big check to the state of Texas, Perry will gleefully take it.. He will have no choice. This state is a mess when it comes to the uninsured. He will never be able to rationally explain to the people why he would turn down such badly needed assistance. I've heard Texas politicians argue it would be better for Texas to set up their own health exchange instead, but that is not a realistic argument. Obamacare is a done deal. It just needs to be implemented. Perry and his administration have no desire to help the uninsured, no matter what they say. If they cared so much it wouldn't be such an epidemic. They have had many opportunities over the years to do something, but they would rather spend their time and resources fighting against the inevitable, which is The Affordable Care Act.
Stuart Greenfield
In the story, Perry said in a statement. "I will not be party to socializing healthcare . . ." Did he not recognize that the healthcare he received in the military and now as a veteran is socialized medicine? The government owns the factors of production that delivers healthcare to those in the military. Neither Medicaid, Medicare, or the health exchanges are socialist, in fact they increase demand for private sector healthcare providers. Wish I had taken economics at A&M.
David Spratt
Good luck getting into a doctor if this expands. Only 32% of doctors now see medicaid patients, down from 42% 2 years ago. in 2 years it will be down to 22%. Add several million more people to this system. Great !!!!!! Everyone of these so called poor people now have ins,,,, but no doctor will treat them..
For everyone whining about ins cost,,,, the reason it is so high is because people with ins are already picking up the cost of those without. How is giving poor people an ins policy going to save you any money? You are still going to pay for it . Remember ,, THEY HAVE NO MONEY!!!!!
The basic idea is to get more people into the system. If you are 20 something years old and can pay a fine, penalty, tax or whatever you want to call it,,,,,and do not have to spend $5000 per year on an ins policy ,,,,, what would you think they are going to do? Quite a few people are either self employed or work for very small companies of fewer than 50 people. Everyone of them will either have to pay the tax or buy ins. What do you think they will do?
Why change the entire system where 75% of people have ins and but for the cost,,, which is NOT going to go down,,,, are happy with what they have , to solve the problems of the 25%? would it not be better to address the problems of the 25% rather than destroy the entire system?
2,700 pages of law in Obama care. Already 13,000 pages of regs have been written ,, and they have just gotten started. Already 180 agencies, offices, panels, study groups, and bureaucratic entities have been created ,,,, and they have just gotten started. This Obama care is really going to save us a buttload of money,,,, right? Hows that social security, medicare and medicaid working so far? Today it was made known 14 billion $ have been paid to people not even eligible to receive unemployment benefits. Food stamp fraud is calculated at 25% depending on who you belive. WOW,, AND YOU REALLY WANT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RUNNING YOUR HEALTH CARE??????? SOME REALLY DO HAVE A DEATH WISH.
Elizabeth Robben
David Spratt, You ask if we REALLY WANT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RUNNING HEALTHCARE?
My answer is YES--ESPECIALLY IF RICK PERRY AND HIS BAND OF GOP FOOLS ARE MY ALTERNATIVE!!! We can't trust Perry to do anything on our behalf except embarrass the state whenever he's on the national stage.
My husband of over 30 years is a primary care doc (general internal medicine) and so far he is impressed with the few Obamacare policies that have been implemented. They have already adjusted the Medicare payer system to make it more efficient, boosted primary care reimbursement a bit for Medicare patients, etc.
David Spratt
One good thing will come of it in a really perverse way, the unemployed will benefit since thousands and thousands of people will be hired. Lawyers, probably thousands of those alone, IRS agents again probably in the thousands. Maybe some of those poor folks can get jobs tracking down "penalty dodgers" and prosecuting them? Man, Liberals are stupid.
You don't want anyone to have to prove who they are to vote, but you will create a massive Frankenstein monster of a bureaucracy that will track your every move and demand to know who you are and exactly what you have been doing every minute of your life,,, unless you are very poor,, then you get a pass. Your really just pawns and do not have any value, since you have no jobs or money. But what you do have that is more valuable than money is your vote!!!! That is what they want and there is never any shortage of the poor throughout history. Always has been and always will be that way.
They only care about and hunt down the ones that have money and can pay. Several more agencies now to cross reference people and track everyone who may have a dime that belongs to them,, IT ALL BELONGS TO THE GOVERNMENT,,,More power to the IRS, HHS, and the government in general,,,,man how stupid can you get?
And damn those rich people,,,,, the nerve of them to think they can actually keep what they have worked for. How arrogant and selfish of them!!!!!!
Dolores Barrett
Not surprised, this is the same Governor that solicited funds from major Insurance Companies for his Presidential Campaign with the help of Eleanor Kitzman/Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner. God help our great state, we all need to try to get this clown out of office A.S.A.P. Texas has the most uninsured people in the country, Texas legislators get health insurance for themselves and their families, why should they care what happens to poor whites, hispanics and African Americans? And let's not forget what our elderly folks are going through.
V Marshall
I don't quite understand all the noise about this. Expanded Medicaid is paid by taxpayers. If they don't get expanded Medicaid, they will have to use the insurance pools and that is also subsidized by the taxpayers. What difference does it make where the line item is placed in the budget? Yes poor people will have to pay something for their premiums in the pools - a maximum of 2% of their income. If people are so outraged by this, contact your Representative and insist that the subsidies cover 100% of premiums for people at 133% of poverty. Personally I believe that EVERYONE, EVEN THE POOR, have a responsibility to contribute to their own health care. 2% of income is not too much to expect to pay for the most valuable thing you possess. Perhaps that is because I have lived in one of those "social democracies" with the evil/perfect (depending on your viewpoint) with national health. EVERYONE PAYS FOR IT! Not just 50% of people, but ALL except those below the poverty line pay national taxes in these countries. These countries also have property taxes, VAT taxes, local taxes etc. just like the US. If everyone in the US pays for Medicare and SS because eventually they will benefit, why shouldn't they pay something for their own healthcare???
People who comment on TT are so predictable. The media pulls the string, the puppet's knee lifts.
Christine Lund
He will stand all alone in Texas except for the very few wealthy people here that control everything but the vote.
Vicente Lozano
The only political oxygen Perry has left is in being a contrarian. Starve him of it.
Elizabeth Robben
Perry is an idiot jackass who embarrasses the state every time he opens his mouth!!! Take your own advice, governor, and secede now--Please!!!