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Perry: Texas Rejects Obamacare

Refuses to implement the law’s key elements.

Texas Gov.—and onetime presidential hopeful—Rick Perry announced Monday that, constitutional or not, his state won’t implement the key aspects of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab,” Perry declared 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.” According to the governor’s office, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can expect a letter from Perry explaining his opposition to receiving federal funds to provide Medicaid to more Texans as well as creating an online insurance exchange. While states who opt out of the Medicaid expansion may not be penalized, the federal government will intervene and impose an insurance exchange program for any state that does not develop its own.