Rick Perry

Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was one of the first Republican governors out of the blocks to vow he'd never take any of that federal Medicaid expansion money after the Supreme Court ruled that states could refuse to participate in that provision of the Affordable Care Act. He announced on July 9 that he'd reject the program.

Either he didn't send that message to the rest of his administration, or he was lying.

Think Progress obtained a letter from the Texas attorney general's office in which the state explains how it will fill the funding gap created by the state's defunding of Planned Parenthood. The federal government took away a big chunk of its Medicaid funding for women's health in Texas because it was in violation of federal law, and now the state is figuring out how it can restructure its women's health program without that Medicaid money.

How does the state intend to close that funding gap?



Greta Rymal, Deputy Executive Commissioner for Financial Services, has projected the fiscal impact of this rule for three years, assuming that all clients will be eligible for Medicaid following the expansion of the Medicaid program in January 2014 [...]

Obviously, with the Medicaid money Perry says he'll refuse. Note that this letter is dated July 9, 2012, eight days after the Supreme Court ruling saying states could refuse to participate. July 9th is the very same day Perry wrote a fiery letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, rejecting the Medicaid expansion and declaring, "I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government."

Either Perry took his whole administration by surprise by rejecting the funding, or he's a liar. Either way, he doesn't give a crap about the health of Texas women, or the 6.2 million Texans, a quarter of the state's population, that are uninsured.