On Friday, Gov. Rick Perry told Federal Officers that Texas would not take part in health insurance pools for high risk individuals, which are being set up under the new national health care law.

Perry, quoting some of the same logics that he used to withdraw from the Race to the Top education financing grant program in January, said that there are not adequate health care regulations to direct the states.

He also said that he deems that the $5 billion that Congress has kept aside to set up pools in all 50 states for four years, is insufficient.

Perry in his letter to U. S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, said that majority of the specialists think that this amount is inadequate. In the upcoming years, State Officers could be coerced to decrease health coverage, hike premiums or urge state taxpayers to pay for these high-risk pools once federal cash run out.

Perry said that the state is not aware what the regulations for these pools will be in the upcoming time.

Perry remarked, “As we've seen in federal education and stimulus programs, the administration is again asking the states to commit to a program without knowing the rules of engagement”.

The state already operates a high-risk pool for health insurance for those who find it hard to get insurance coverage anywhere else.

The pool reported that in 2008 it covered around 26,000 Texas residents and shelled out nearly $265 million in clinical and pharmacy benefits.