Rick Perry: Obamacare Won't Be Successful

Obamacare doesn’t have much of a chance of working because of the wariness of states over the creation of health insurance exchanges, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

“The exchanges are not going to work because states are wise enough not to go into a relationship when you don’t know what the rules are. You don’t know what the cost is going to be," Perry told Forbes magazine.

States have until Friday to decide whether to create their own health insurance exchanges that will help people learn about how and where to buy insurance. The federal government will step in and run exchanges for states that opt out of creating their own.

Alert: Will Raising Taxes Help or Hurt America? Vote Here!

“The idea that you’ve got a state instituted exchange, but it has to be federally approved. So the fact is the federal government’s going to have to run these. And they don’t have the expertise, nor do they have the money,’’ Perry said.

Perry, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination this year, said he believes “wise governors and wise legislatures will say, ‘No, thank you.’

“Medicaid is a broken system. And the idea that we would expand and put more money and more people into a broken system is not unlike putting another 1,000 people on the Titanic. You know how this is going to turn out. And it’s going to be a disaster.’’

Perry said states should be given “the opportunity to innovate, to put in the programs that best serve their citizens . . .

“Bobby Jindal, one of the brightest innovators in the country. Rick Scott over in Florida, who spent his lifetime in health care. And a host of other governors, hopefully Democrat and Republican governors, will put ideas forward, put concepts forward, try them out in their states.’’