 -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has vowed not to implement state programs required under President Barack Obama's federal health care law. He joins several other Republican governors who remain opposed to the state mandates after the Supreme Court upheld the law's constitutionality.

NBC's Dallas affiliate reports that Perry announced his refusal to create a state health insurance exchange in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius:

"I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Perry stated in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab. Neither a "state" exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better "patient protection" or in more "affordable care." They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care," Perry continued.

"I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Perry stated in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

"I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab. Neither a "state" exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better "patient protection" or in more "affordable care." They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care," Perry continued.