The Smithian

A quarter of the residents of Texas, 6.3 million people, are uninsured, by far the highest percentage in the country…Texas ranks last in prenatal care and finished last on a new federal assessment of overall health quality that examined factors like disease prevention, deaths from illnesses, and cancer treatment. Yet Gov. Rick Perry—strangely puffed up as he was so often in his presidential bid—recently told the Obama administration that he would proudly refuse a huge infusion of Medicaid money that would significantly reduce those shameful statistics and cover 1.7 million more people…At least five other Republican governors have made a similar choice, announcing that they will not expand their Medicaid program for the poor even though the federal government would pay for almost all of it for several years under President Obama’s health care reform law.

#smh.