Health law would cost Texas less

AUSTIN (AP) - The health and human services commissioner has cut his estimate of what the federal health care law would cost Texas by 42 percent.

Tom Suehs estimated on Thursday that if Texas fully implemented the law, it would cost Texas $15 billion to $16 billion over 10 years. That is down from his original estimate of $26 billion to $27 billion to expand Medicaid.

But Gov. Rick Perry has said he will reject any attempt to expand Medicaid in Texas to provide nearly 2 million people with health insurance.

Suehs, who was updating lawmakers on the Affordable Care Act, says the revised estimate is the result of new information and spending estimates. He says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling makes it difficult to know exactly how much the law would cost.