Texas Governor Derides Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care

June 29, 2012

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the vast majority of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul a “stomach punch to the American economy.”

Perry said in a statement following the June 28 ruling that, “It is a shocking disappointment to freedom-loving Americans desperate to get our country back on track. Obamacare is bad for the economy, bad for health care, bad for freedom.”

He adds that “freedom was frontally attacked by passage of this monstrosity.” He says the court “utterly failed in its duty to uphold the Constitutional limits placed on Washington.”

Texas, among several states that challenged the law, has not yet implemented a health care exchange that would serve as an insurance marketplace for people and businesses to buy coverage.

About 25 percent — 6.2 million — state residents are uninsured,

Texas has not implemented an online health insurance marketplace. But the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Medicaid in the state, says the agency already has met deadlines for some requirements, such as implementing a tobacco cessation benefit for pregnant women on Medicaid.

In addition, at least 5,700 Texans are participating in a federally mandated insurance plan for those with pre-existing conditions, though the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is running that program instead of Texas.

Topics Texas Legislation

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