AUSTIN, Texas—The state of Texas will not set up a state health insurance exchange where the uninsured, among others, could use health care reform law authorized premium subsidies to buy coverage, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday.In addition, Texas will not expand Medicaid to cover more low-income state residents, Gov. Perry said.“I oppose both the expansion of Medicaid as provided in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the creation of a so-called ‘state’ insurance exchange, because both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state,” Gov. Perry wrote in a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.“Neither a ‘state’ exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under the Orwellian-named PPACA would result in better ‘patient protection’ or in more ‘affordable care.’ What they would do is make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care,” Gov. Perry wrote.Under the health care reform law, the federal government can set up a health insurance exchange in states that decline to do so. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a health care reform law provision that would have stripped federal funding of Medicaid from states that did not expand eligibility for Medicaid.
