text: The Washington Times ^ | July 11, 2012 | Gov. Rick Perry, Texas
  Expecting to extend quality health care access to millions of Americans by pressing them into the existing Medicaid system is a little like expecting to win the Indy 500 in a 1965 Chevy Corvair. It's just not the right tool for the job.
  A fundamental flaw in the Obama administration's government health care plan is that Medicaid is already on the brink of failure. Dumping millions more people into the Medicaid mix will not save it, will not cut any costs and will not improve overall access to quality care.
  In Texas, we have no interest in following the federal directive to expand our Medicaid ranks by more than 1 million, and we also are rejecting calls to establish a so-called "state" insurance exchange designed and ruled by federal guidelines, many of which have yet to be written. Neither of these is the proper role of the federal government and both represent brazen intrusions into the affairs of states.
  While some will complain we will be turning down a lot of "federal money" covering short-term Medicaid expansion, they ignore two important truths. First, this "federal money" is being printed out of thin air - racking up trillions of dollars of debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Second, this money will run out, and then we will be faced with mounting state costs and millions more people on public health rolls.
  Meanwhile, states are already facing skyrocketing Medicaid costs that threaten our future and crowd out other funding needs, such as public schools and public safety. In Texas, Medicaid already consumes more than 20 percent of the state's general revenue budget, with that percentage threatening to jump dramatically in the coming budget cycle, even without Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
  While Texas is actually better prepared...
  1 posted on 07/12/2012 1:54:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  2 posted on 07/12/2012 2:12:27 AM PDT by onyx (FREE REPUBLIC IS HERE TO STAY! DONATE MONTHLY- IF YOU WANT ON SARAH PALIN''S PING LIST, LET ME KNOW)
  3 posted on 07/12/2012 2:21:23 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  4 posted on 07/12/2012 2:40:58 AM PDT by onyx (FREE REPUBLIC IS HERE TO STAY! DONATE MONTHLY- IF YOU WANT ON SARAH PALIN''S PING LIST, LET ME KNOW)
  Big Government bureaucrats will tell you "resistance is futile."
  "Gov. Rick Perry might have rejected the opportunity to run a state health insurance exchange outlined in the federal health care law, but that doesn't mean state agencies won't work closely with Washington regulators to offer Texans a way to buy insurance.
  Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an advocacy group for low- and moderate-
  income Texans, said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act outlines several areas in which the state and federal governments must collaborate on the exchanges, including on regulatory issues, information sharing and consumer assistance.
  "There has to be interaction under the law," she said.
  Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said the federally run health insurance exchange will have to connect to the state's eligibility system.
  The federal government will determine who qualifies for federal subsidies to buy insurance on the exchanges, while the state will figure out who qualifies for the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, the federally subsidized, state-run health care programs for low-income children and the state's poorest adults, respectively.
  Texas Health and Human Services Commission officials are waiting to hear from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about many of the details on how to proceed ahead of the planned rollout of the exchange in 2014, Goodman said.........."The feds anticipate working with states," she said.............State agencies expected to work with feds in health exchanges
  5 posted on 07/12/2012 3:12:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  6 posted on 07/12/2012 3:26:51 AM PDT by Uncle Slayton
  7 posted on 07/12/2012 3:32:41 AM PDT by samtheman (The Trillion Dollar ObamaCareTax definitely is a tax; just ask the US Supreme Court.)
  8 posted on 07/12/2012 3:43:16 AM PDT by Whenifhow
  9 posted on 07/12/2012 4:11:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  10 posted on 07/12/2012 6:59:01 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR." - Glenn Beck)
  11 posted on 07/12/2012 8:20:55 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  12 posted on 07/12/2012 8:39:43 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR." - Glenn Beck)
  .....we MUST get America off that track.
  13 posted on 07/12/2012 1:01:45 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
  Good article by Rick Perry.
  And apparently the big government Bush family doesn't like him. Another plus for Rick. Too bad he didn't perform well in the debates.
  14 posted on 07/12/2012 1:08:38 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)