No surprise here. Story in the Houston Chronicle:
A day before a Friday deadline, Gov. Rick Perry announced Texas would not set up a key component of the Affordable Care Act, a health-insurance exchange that would allow individuals and small businesses to find coverage online at the most favorable price.
The governor reiterated his opposition in a letter released Thursday to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
"As long as the federal government has the ability to force unknown mandates and costs upon our citizens, while retaining the sole power in approving what an exchange looks like, the notion of a state exchange is merely an illusion," Perry said in the letter. "It would not be fiscally responsible to put hard-working Texans on the financial hook for an unknown amount of money to operate a system under rules that have not even been written."
The health insurance exchanges are the primary means for individuals to purchase health insurance under the ACA (Obamacare). each state is allowed to establish its own exchange if it chooses, but has to have this done soon - the deadline has been adjusted recently. These have to operational by January 1, 2014. If a states chooses not to do so, the federal government can step in to set it up.
