Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Over 1.4 million Texas children don’t have health care in Texas. Rick Perry’s prescription: cut more kids from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and threaten to veto any effort to fix the problem.

As Governor, Rick Perry stole health care from over 215,000 Texas children in 2003. (Source: San Antonio Express-News) He sent over $1 billion Texas taxpayer dollars back to Washington to be used in other states. (Source: Greater Houston Partnership) He created a health care privatization scheme that gave $899 million to a Bermuda-based company, a plan that made it as difficult as possible for parents to get health care for their kids. (Source: Austin American-Statesman)

In every way possible, Rick Perry’s policies have been bad medicine for Texas children and wasted Texas taxpayer dollars.

• Perry supported a plan developed by his hand-picked appointees at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to outsource CHIP enrollment to a private offshore tax haven call center in Bermuda, causing tens of thousands of Texas kids to lose coverage. (Source: Texas Observer) One child actually died as a result of being unable to access needed medical care after losing CHIP coverage. (Source: Houston Chronicle)
• The failure of Texas Republican leadership to invest in the health of Texas children has forced over 1.4 million kids to go without health care coverage – over 20%, the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. (Source: Families USA)
• Texas Democrats have never ceased working to repair the damage done by Perry’s massive 2003 CHIP cuts, fighting for restoration of enrollees. Yet in the last legislative session, Rick Perry threatened to veto any efforts to expand CHIP that the legislature passed. (Source: Associated Press)

Rick Perry’s failed policies have made it harder for Texans to get our children the care they deserve, while punishing taxpayers who are forced to pay for his refusal to invest in CHIP.  The Governor’s health care prescription is bad medicine for Texas, and “business as usual” for Rick Perry.

Next – #1: “What Recession?”

Previous – #3: Perry’s Political Cover-up Compromises Texas Criminal Justice

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