Texas will opt out of several key components of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, part of which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said that Texas will not expand on Medicaid or create a health insurance exchange, which are major aspects of health care reform.
“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,” the governor said in a blunt statement on Monday.
Perry said he stands “proudly with the growing chorus of governors” who reject the health care reforms. The health care provisions “would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care,” he added.
Texas has the highest rate of people without health insurance in the United States—24.6 percent, around 6.2 million people, according to Reuters.
The state will likely be the most populous to reject the two provisions.
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