4 reasons Rick Perry may regret battling ObamaCare

The Texas governor joins other GOP leaders across the country by refusing to implement ObamaCare in his state. Will the defiance pay off or backfire?

If Texas Gov. Rick Perry opts out of the Medicaid expansion, as he promises, his state will lose out on $70 billion in federal money over six years.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday declared that his state would fight President Obama's health-care overhaul by refusing to expand Medicaid or set up one-stop insurance exchanges. Perry, a former GOP presidential candidate, called those ObamaCare provisions — the main pillars of the law — "brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state." He joined a growing group of outspoken Republican governors, including Rick Scott of Florida, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who have vowed to resist the Affordable Care Act since the Supreme Court upheld it in late June. Will defying Obama's reform effort pay off? Here, four reasons the GOP governors might end up regretting wading into this fight:

1. Perry and other GOP governors are losing out on a windfall

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