Why would Cruz sign up for Obamacare?

[LynneSin]

First, wouldn't his wife be eligible for insurance through a COBRA plan through Goldman Sach? Couldn't they have worked out a deal with GS to continue the insurance after she had left?

Also I googled Cruz's networth which is around $2-$4 million dollars, couldn't he have just paid cash for his own plan and skip the whole Obamacare embarassment. He could have afforded it without the hypocrisy of signing up for the one thing he swears he is going to dismantle.

I have never needed Obamacare, I get health insurance through my job. But I would have to think that someone of some means of wealth could avoid all forms of Obamacare and just ask an insurance company to provide a top of the line healthcare plan not tainted by Obamacare.

Is that possible?

[marym625]

1. I suspect

He's hoping for problems with the website. That's mho.

[etherealtruth]

6. I suspect, you are correct! n/t

[tridim]

13. He will find every nitpicky "problem", no doubt about it.

And when he doesn't find any problems he will simply make some up.

That is what pathological liars do.

[marym625]

20. yep. I agree

[Kingofalldems]

2. Agreed there is something fishy going on here.

[still_one]

3. COBRA is much more expensive, unless Goldman is subsidizing the COBRA. It would last 18 months.

I am sure he is looking at the ACA exchanges, because even though he shouldn't qualify for subsidies, his premiums would probably still be cheaper than COBRA

[LynneSin]

9. But he's worth millions, he could afford COBRA

and it would have saved him the embarassment.

[still_one]

23. Doesn't matter what they can afford, they will still look for the best price, and then float their

hypocritical BS around

[SickOfTheOnePct]

28. All members of Congress and their staffs qualify for subsidies

not all take them, but they're available to them.

[jeff47]

4. Yep, Cruz only has to go to the Exchange for the sweet, sweet government subsidy. (nt)

[Blue_Adept]

5. Politics

Plain and simple. It'll be a cudgel he uses that the believers in him will take at his word rather than the reality of millions that use it and their positive experiences.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Doesn't the law require Senators to go to the exchange...

in cases like his?

[jeff47]

16. No.

He could go buy insurance on the "free market", and pay for it himself. He has to go to the Exchange if he wants the government to pay for it.

[CTyankee]

32. Plus, he has the protections (e.g. pre-existing conditions) he wouldn't have under a private plan.

Betcha somebody in his family has one of those pre-existing conditions.

[PoliticAverse]

18. Yes, see...

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/08/no-special-subsidy-for-congress/

The Affordable Care Act says that starting in 2014, members of Congress and their staffs can no longer get their health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as they have in the past. Instead, these federal employees will have to get insurance through the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act.

[jeff47]

33. Not quite.

Read it a little more carefully. They have to go to the Exchange for their employer to pay for their insurance.

[PoliticAverse]

35. That's correct, to get the employer (US Government) contribution they have to use the exchanges.

They are free to buy insurance elsewhere and forfeit the contribution.

[OKNancy]

8. Because of a rider passed by Congress

where Congress gets a big financial gain. In order to get it, they have to use the exchange. I believe he gets 75% paid by the feds.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. That makes two things that stink here.

First, he's announced, second, there's more to his signing up that meets the eye.

[lame54]

11. Great solution - that's what a NON-Hypocrite would do

[uponit7771]

12. +1

[Journeyman]

15. I asked the same thing in a thread yesterday . . .

My wife and I used Covered California to get insurance in 2014. We wanted to get the numbers for the ACA up as much as possible.

However, we left "Covered California" this year because we encountered a number of medical providers who "looked down their nose" at us for having "Obamacare." The assumption -- inaccurate, and arrived at with no evidence to support -- was that we were low income and (I assume) potentially a "risk" for making our co-pays.

This year, we purchased the exact same plan directly from the insurance carrier. So we still enjoy the benefits of the ACA -- our insurance comes at about a third the cost it did in 2013, we have access to a number of low-cost and free procedures mandated by the ACA, and we don't have to dread a medical diagnosis throwing us into an uninsurable category.

So what I wonder about Cruz is, he doesn't have to get his insurance through an exchange -- he'll garner all the benefits without having to directly use an ACA-established plan -- so why is he even involved with it?

I would really like for him to have to pay what I was paying two years ago for insurance: it would certainly open his eyes to the benefits of the ACA.

I suspect Cruz has something underhanded in mind. No idea what he may hope to accomplish, but then, I don't put anything past him.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

17. He wants to prove how easy it is for non-citizens to scam the system.

(Not sure he thought this one through all the way.)

[herding cats]

19. I thought about this yesterday.

What I've come up with is two choices.

He's one of those mega wealthy people who doesn't want to part with one cent more than is necessary.

Or, and this one is feeling more and more likely to me.

He wants to complain about Obamacare.

It's going to be about 20 months he's going to need coverage due to the timing of his wife taking her leave from work. If he being sensible, like the rest of us have to be, she could have stayed on for two more months and they then could have applied for COBRA for the 18 month period they would need coverage. No switching of health care plans, no having to hunt for a plan which uses the same providers as they currently use, or which has coverage in all the areas they need and expect from their current policy. Money is not an issue for them, they're loaded. Which means that under normal circumstances the easiest thing for them to do would be wait two months for her to leave her job and sign up for COBRA. Instead he's changing his health insurance coverage, making sure everyone is well aware of what he's being "forced" into doing. This isn't an accident, or a minor oversight, it was by design. Now he can complain about all the horrors of having to deal with a new carrier, the 'nightmare' of signing up on the exchange, and how he had it so much better before he was "forced" into using Obamacare, which since he's a federal employee is what his job offers as coverage.

I could of course be way off on this, but I think it fits nicely with the type of politics Cruz plays at and will resonate with the people who buy his BS, which is a fact he's well aware of.

[gvstn]

21. The thing is that I highly doubt Senators EVER have health insurance nightmares.

Insurance companies spend a lot of money lobbying Senators. I can't believe any insurance company is going to wily nilly deny certain procedures or ER visits when it comes to a Senator's account. I think that is one reason they haven't seen anything wrong with health insurance over the last 40 years. Their accounts are probably handled by hand and everything gets immediately approved. No hours on the phone and resubmitting charges for them. I might be wrong but it would be bad business on the part of the insurers not make certain that all Senator's coverage runs flawlessly.

[herding cats]

22. Oh, I agree.

But that he's being treated like royalty within the system is not how he's going to frame it. He's going to make it sound like the worst thing he's ever had to do, and it's all the fault of Democrats he's having to endure such horrors.

[riderinthestorm]

27. ^^^^ this rings true for me @ why Cruz is going the ACA route ^^^^ nt

[WillowTree]

30. In my experience, nobody wants to pay more for anything than they have to.......

......regardless of how much money they have or make. Nothing really unusual about that.

[JTFrog]

24. Even getting insurance through your job, you still benefit from the ACA.

Children under 27 can stay on your health plan. Free preventative care (like some shots, colonoscopy, mammogram, and a free yearly physical, etc.) were made mandatory for all health care plans.

[seltzerwater]

25. Have you seen the price of a cobra plan?

even Rafael thought that was too much to pay.

[Warpy]

26. According to him, he's so righteous he'll never get sick or injured

so his wife must have nagged him into it so she'd have coverage.

[MineralMan]

29. Maybe he has a pre-existing condition.

A brain disorder, perhaps...

[CTyankee]

31. why didn't he get a "top of the line healthcare plan not tainted by Obamacare" you ask.

Here's why: Obamacare is a better deal. Obamacare forbids that ugly pre-existing condition. It has protections that private health care plans often do not.

Cruz probably found that out and decided to go with the better bet. I'm sure he won't admit it, but I am convinced that is the gist of it.

[valerief]

34. Exactly. He can afford top dollar for med insurance. But he's saying he's REQUIRED

TO SIGN UP for OBAMACARE. Like it's threatening his freedumb and libertea. Another GOP LIE that RWNJs will swallow.