Perry rejects federal health care insurance pool

[onestepforward]

http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2010/04/perry_rejects_f.html

Gov. Rick Perry today told the federal health and human services commissioner that Texas will not participate in creating a high risk health insurance pool under the new federal healthcare law. Perry said the program lacks rules to guide the states and appears to be underfunded at the federal level.

Perry cited conditions similar to those that caused him to pull out of applying for the federal Race to the Top education funding grants.

Here we go again. :eyes:

[sonias]

1. Yeah Perry hates governing

So he's willing to hand it off to the Obama administration again. So why the hell does he want to be Governor?

Just for the kickbacks of course. He's making himself rich.

:puke:

[sonias]

2. Representative Garnet F. Coleman's statement

Texas House of Representatives District 147 • Fax [phone] • Phone [phone]


PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2010

Statement from Representative Garnet F. Coleman on Governor Perry's High Risk Pool Decision

Houston – Representative Garnet F. Coleman, Vice Chair of the Select Committee on Federal Legislation that is tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, issued the following statement on Governor Perry’s decision to not set up a new high risk pool in Texas to provide affordable care to Texans living with preexisting conditions that are unable to find private market health insurance:

"I guess Governor Perry didn't believe his own rhetoric when he said states should be left up to their own devices to create healthcare solutions. When it came down to setting up a new Texas high risk pool, Governor Perry decided to have the federal government come in and do it instead.

Fortunately, this time Texans won’t be left out to dry because of the Governor’s inaction. The federal government will implement a high risk pool so that Texans with pre-existing conditions can access reasonably priced coverage.

Moving forward, I hope this won't be the Governor's approach to implementing health care reform, but after reflecting on his record, it probably will be."

The new high risk pool is one of the first provisions of the Affordable Care Act to take effect. Texas is slated to receive approximately $493 million from the federal government to set up a high risk pool for Texans with preexisting conditions that are unable to receive coverage elsewhere. The new federal pool will offer coverage at 100 percent of the standard market risk rate, Texas’ current risk pool offers coverage for twice that amount. The new pool is intended to offer more affordable coverage to Americans until the ban on preexisting conditions takes effect in 2014.

Perry cut and ran when the going got tough. Perry = quitter.

[sonias]

3. Perry caught lying again - no surprise

PoltiFact Check 4/15/10

Perry Says Texas has been waiting for two years for the federal government to act on a proposal to allow the state to "create insurance opportunities for those that are uninsured today."

Gov. Rick Perry, a critic of the new federal health care law, said in an April 15 interview with the Texas Tribune and Newsweek magazine that states could act on their own to reduce the number of residents who lack health insurance.

How so?

Texas has "had for over two years, waiver requests in front of the Health and Human Services committee — before this administration (of Democratic President Barack Obama) got into place, I might add — that allowed us some flexibility ... to use dollars differently than what are mandated by the federal government to create insurance opportunities for those that are uninsured today," Perry said.

Perry's point: Texas has proposed some good ideas to help its uninsured residents with health care, but the feds have chosen to sit on them.

(snip)
We rate Perry's statement as False.

And then he punts of course because he's got nothing. No plan, no vision, no idea what the hell to do as a leader. :eyes:

[sonias]

4. Political patterns: Gov. Rick Perry yet again rejects federal funding

Houston Chronicle Editorial 5/4/10
Political patterns: Gov. Rick Perry yet again rejects federal funding that could help millions of Texans

It's one thing for a state governor to have legitimate concerns about accepting federal programs. It's quite another when he or she repeatedly rejects or stonewalls such programs to curry political favor.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the pattern with Texas Gov. Rick Perry: The federal government is forever the enemy and state sovereignty must be preserved at all costs.

But in today's economy, when so many Texans are struggling to survive, it just doesn't make sense that we are refusing taxpayer dollars that would bring some relief to those very same taxpayers when they most need it.

(snip)
Same song, different verse: Last summer, with unemployment at record highs, Perry rejected $556 million in unemployment stimulus funds rather than make minor changes to the state's restrictive eligibility criteria. At that time, only 27 percent of unemployed Texans, the second-lowest ranking in the country, were receiving benefits — due in part to those restrictions.

(snip)
But surely he could draw the line at using children, the unemployed, the uninsured and the hungry as fodder for his political appetites.

Hell no he couldn't. Perry would tell the "the unemployed, the uninsured and the hungry" to get a job! Just like the mantra his party always says. :grr: