Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz cited President Barack Obama’s signature health care law as the reason he no longer has health care insurance.
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If Cruz and his family don’t have some form of health coverage by January 31 – the deadline for open enrollment in individual insurance plans – they will be liable for a tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act.
As a USA senator, Cruz also has the option to get coverage through the Washington, D.C.-exchange, where he would also be eligible for a subsidy up to 75 percent from his government employer, as Hiltzik also noted.
Essentially, Cruz’s coverage lapsed because his 2015 carrier, BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, ended its individual PPO plans for 2016, including the family plan that covered the Cruz family.
“So our health care got canceled, we got a notice in the mail, Blue Cross Blue Shield was leaving the market”. And so we’re in the process of finding another policy.
As to Cruz’s assertion that his premiums had spiked by 50 percent, according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, on average, premiums in Texas increased by only 4 percent.
“That’s happening all over the country”.
“By the way, when you let your health insurance policy lapse, your wife gets really ticked at you”, Cruz said.
In response, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a statement calling Cruz’s claim a “misleading ObamaCare sob story”, reports The Hill.
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Heidi Cruz, the senator’s wife, is on unpaid leave from from her executive post at the financial company for the duration of her husband’s presidential campaign, and is not receiving company benefits – including health insurance – during her leave, a Goldman spokesperson told CNN last March. “The fact that Ted Cruz would use his own irresponsible decision as an excuse to take affordable care away from 19 million Americans is despicable”. “It’s not a good – I’ve had, shall we say, some intense conversations with Heidi on that”.
