Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said in an interview published Wednesday that shutting down the federal government in an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act isn’t a “good option” for Republicans in Congress.
“I don’t think it’s a good option,” Perry told ABC News’ Jeff Zeleny. “There’s still time to sit down and try to fix Obamacare.”
Blah, blah, blah. Rick Perry has been Texas governor a very long time. He’s a failure at health care. Before him, former President Bush failed at health care in Texas.
Perry, A Republican, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States.
In all those years they couldn’t do anything about the health care crisis in Texas?
Texas again has highest uninsured rate in nation
In addition to having the highest rate of people without health insurance in the nation, Texas also has the largest number of children without health insurance and the highest rate of poor adults without health insurance, according to 2012 American Community Survey estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau late Wednesday.
More than 852,000 Texas children lacked health insurance in 2012, according to the ACS estimates, which are taken from a random sampling of households throughout the year.
Texas also had the highest rate of adults making below 138 percent of the federal poverty threshold — lower than $15,415 for an individual or $26,344 for a family of three — who lack insurance, at 55 percent. Those people would have qualified for Medicaid coverage if the state had chosen to expand eligibility under the federal Affordable Care Act.
In the 2014-15 biennium, Texas would have received $7.7 billion in federal funds, while spending $297 million to cover poor adults, according to Hamilton’s estimates. Medicaid expansion would have cost the state six times less than the amount local governments and hospitals currently on uncompensated care for uninsured adults, according to Hamilton’s report.
While Cruz and Perry run for President and give interviews and access to health care in their state gets worse every single year, things are looking a little brighter for the uninsured in Texas, no thanks to them.
Today my wife received the following letter.
Important to note is that the letter correctly echoes the benefits of Obamacare for the millions in Texas and the United States with preexisting conditions. It correctly states that someone with a preexisting condition can no longer be denied coverage. It states forcefully (with an underline) that everyone is guaranteed the same rate given one’s age. It also correctly states that many will qualify for subsidies.
The letter even goes further in promoting Obamacare. It correctly states that there are no more lifetime maximums (in other words insurance companies cannot stop paying up to some maximum; bankruptcies be gone). It correctly states that 100% coverage for preventative care is provided, and all policies now cover doctor visits hospitalization, and prescriptions. In other words charlatans can no longer sell worthless policies. Most importantly, the letter sends Texans to the correct website that will provide them accurate information instead of all the lies and misinformation provided in an orchestrated manner by the Republican Party. The misinformation and lies will directly cause the unnecessary deaths of many, mostly their own constituents and base.
Xecky Gilchrist
Clearly a forgery. No Republican would send out such a hideous pile of raw, steaming fact.
...now I try to be amused
I’m guessing a conscientious civil servant was behind this.
Ash Can
And how many people, upon reading this, will be saying, “This sounds a hell of a lot better than that Obamacare.”
Higgs Boson's Mate
@…now I try to be amused:
I’m wishing that person all the luck in the world in finding their next job.
burnspbesq
@Ash Can:
Your internets are being carefully packed right now, and will be shipped to you later today.
Kay
@…now I try to be amused:
Back in 2011, I read a piece on Texas state government that said that while Texas celebrity politicians like to rant and rave about Big Gubmint, the state runs well because there’s a core group of career people who do their jobs.
The piece said state employees in Austin were busily working on Obamacare, and that was two years ago. I actually wish the same was true in Ohio. We seem to have been completely taken over by political appointees and hacks.
nineone
Check and mate, motherfrakkers.
gbear
@Ash Can: Bingo!
gratuitous
Okay, I read and re-read the THIP letter. I am curious to see that nowhere does the letter credit the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Apparently, as far as Texans are supposed to know, this new insurance program just fell out of the sky.
For the Lone Star Staters working so hard to turn Texas from rock-ribbed Republican to something resembling a more functional state, this seems like a really good opportunity to explain to the low-information voters just where this affordable access to health care came from.
Elizabelle
That’s a wonderfully informative letter.
And the first paragraph implies it’s Obamacare — one could point that out to Teatards, if one cared to try. The facts line up with what’s known about Obamacare.
As Kay says, Rick Perry and Texas did not just get religion on this, and don’t those timetables line up nicely with that pesky Kenyan’s scheme?
Kay
@gratuitous:
Democrats are bad at it, and they’ve been bad at at it forever.
You would not believe how many people have health insurance for their kids under SCHIP and do not know it’s a federal program. They really do think it fell out of the sky. I make a point of saying it. They say “the kids are on Buckeye” and I say “the kids are on Medicaid?” Sometimes they deny it. “No, they’re on the Buckeye program”. Which is Medicaid.
Svensker
I have a wingnut cousin from Texas who piously assured me during the initial Obamacare fight that Repubs really really wanted to do something about the terrible position so many folks were in vis a vis their insurance. OK, great, said I. What? The answer? Tort reform.
At least if they’d ever gone ahead and passed the stupid tort reform I might give them a cookie for trying. But they couldn’t even do that.
WereBear
@Kay: The way a lot of young women thought their access to reproductive healthcare was a done deal.
Yatsuno
@Kay: The state exchange in WA is labeled Apple health. I just think that’s cute. And honestly if people get health care coverage who the fuck cares what it’s called?
kindness
@Yatsuno: Apple Health? Did Microsoft pitch a fit?
Suffern ACE
But they did get a patients’ bill of rights in Texas. I thought that was going to fix their healthcare problems.
Matt McIrvin
@kindness: Forget Microsoft, did the Beatles’ company pitch a fit?
Fred
All them benafits is better than Obamacare! I’m glad Guvner Rick and Senator Cruz beat them libruls so we can has us some good docterin.
lou
@Ash Can: I think it was the New York Times that did a piece a month or so back about the effort to sign up people for the exchanges in Kentucky during a fair. The organizers didn’t advertise it as the Affordable Care Act, but under the Kentucky name. Someone took the paperwork and exclaimed “This is much better than that Obamacare!”
The activist mulled correcting the person and decided not to, because it was more important to sign up people.
Ignoramuses.
RaflW
Any chance of that letter going to the millions of Texans NOT in the risk pool?
Yeah, I know.
I hope Enroll America has a major Texas outreach plan.
Mnemosyne
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Note that it is unsigned and attributed to the “Executive Director’s Office.” Nobody was taking any chances.
jonas
@Svensker: This is all they ever say: all the ills of the American health care system are because of evil trial lawyers who sue doctors for no reason or whatever. I don’t deny that there are areas where some tort reform could be helpful, but to make it seem as if everyone could have access to insurance and health care if only they were unable to sue doctors for malpractice is just idiocy. They’ve got nuthin’ and they know it. And really just don’t care.
Ruckus
They’ve got nuthin’ and they know it.
And really just don’t care.
The first line may be true. However I’m not sure they know it.
The second line is the real issue.
tybee
that would be different