Gov. Rick Perry and some of my Republican colleagues believe that we should not expand Medicaid to cover an additional 1.8 million uninsured Texans or create a health insurance exchange website to help consumers compare and select private insurance plans.

Citing perceived flaws in the Medicaid system as well as anticipated costs of implementation, they claim that the Affordable Care Act would “reduce quality of care … and do irreparable harm to the people of Texas.” It appears that their reasoning is tainted with faulty judgments, unwavering ideology and a shortsighted demand for perfection in the initial rollout of the new health care law.

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