Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

From 2000 to 2009, under Rick Perry’s one-party Republican rule, Texans’ health insurance premiums have risen 91.6%. While Texans paid the price for Perry policies that profited the insurance companies, benefits were cut and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan was gutted.

Now, as Governor of the state with the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, Perry is fighting against health insurance reform – choosing to protect the obscene profits of big insurance companies instead of more than 24,000 Texans who lose their health care coverage every month.

Rick Perry’s calculated political pandering and failure to lead has divided Texans, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a partisan fight that obscures the true costs of doing nothing on health care:

• Over 25% of Texans do not have health care, the highest rate of uninsured in the country. (Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

• Those who still do have health care have seen their premiums increase 91.6% over the last decade – five times faster than the increase in median income. (Source: Austin American-Statesman)

• Perry’s “Pay to Play” politics led him to send $899 million to an offshore call center in Bermuda – a privatization scheme that deeply cost Texas taxpayers and resulted in over 237,000 children losing their health insurance through CHIP. (Source: San Antonio Express-News)

Rick Perry has had a decade to fix Texas’ health care crisis – and he has only made it worse. The only “action” on health care was a Medicaid waiver request so ludicrous that even the Bush administration turned it down. (Source: Austin American-Statesman)

Instead of working to find sensible solutions, Perry has spent the last decade pursuing politically-driven policies that cost Texas taxpayers and deepen Texas’ health care crisis. Rick Perry’s failure to address the rising cost of health care is one of the many reasons why he has failed Texas.

**In this press release, we misstated when we wrote, “Perry’s “Pay to Play” politics led him to send $899 million to an offshore call center in Bermuda…” Our intent was to communicate that Accenture was headquartered in Bermuda, and thus taxpayer dollars would be sent offshore. We understand the call centers were operated here in Texas – including one in Speaker Tom Cradddick’s own district in Midland. The Texas Democratic Party feels the awarding of the contract – and the devastating policy changes that were enacted in HB 2292 in 2003 – abandoned our commitment to provide the best quality health care for Texas children.

Continue reading – #9: Homeowners Insurance Rates Skyrocket During Perry’s Tenure

To read more about how Rick Perry has failed Texas, visit the TDP’s Top Ten Rick Perry Failures page by clicking here.