My assignment editors (you) have asked me to write about the irony of the Cruz family relying on the Obamacare exchanges for health insurance now that the Senator’s wife has taken a leave of absence from the vampire squids at Goldman Sachs. Her family coverage through GS is now terminated until she goes back on the payroll.
The Cruz family has some choices for health insurance.
1) COBRA… For the next eighteen months, the Cruz family could COBRA the Goldman Sachs coverage. They would be responsible for the entire premium (roughly $40,000 per year) plus a 2% administrative fee. They would receive no government or employer subsidy for this coverage.
2) Run naked — as conservatives have been fond to incorrectly argue by misinterpreting studies, health insurance has no relationship to health status, so it is smart for the Cruz’s to not be covered as it would not impact their health, and if they need any services, they can trade chickens or bargain for good cancer treatment the day they get a diagnosis. Free Markets bitches.
3) Buy off-Exchange coverage. These would be Obamacare compliant policies without any government subsidy.
4) Join a healthcare sharing ministry with limited lifetime caps and significant pre-exisiting condition exclusions.
5) Get coverage from the other employed adult’s employer
a) The Cruz 2016 campaign will buy group health insurance policy for at least senior aides and field workers, so the Cruz family can get in on this.
b) Ted Cruz is eligible for the Federal Employee Health Benefit. For non-Congresscritters, FEHB is a private exchange with private insurers offering minimally qualified policies. The federal government will kick in a signifcant portion of the costs as a hidden employer subsidy. For Congresscritters, the FEHB outsources the plan selection and exchange functionality to the Washington DC SHOP exchange. The employer contribution follows the employed to the Washington DC exchange.
6) Get on-exchange coverage from a Texas insurer but since the Cruz family has access to affordable healthcare in 5B and family income is above 400% FPL for a family of four, they are not eligible for subsidies.
5b is the case where the Cruz family has to use Obamacare. The most likely scenario that I can see the Cruz family use to get coverage is 5A with an outside shot at joining a healthcare sharing ministry to cement their right wing bonafides.
ThresherK
7) Suck it up and do what the little people do , then thank his Lord for the InvisibleHand and PrivateSector which makes all that other stuff unnecessary.
I believe it’s called Hetty Greening.
g
I think Mr. Cruz should limit his options to what would be available to people if the ACA were repealed. Looks like that excludes 5b, the option he’s talking about.
MomSense
Wasn’t there a kerfuffle regarding benefits for Congress such that the congresscritters actually took congressional health benefits off the FEHB and made all the staffers, etc. go to the DC exchange to sign up. I think it had something to do with erroneous Republican messaging about Congress being exempt from ObamaCare even though the whole point of ObamaCare was to provide options for the people who didn’t already access insurance through their employer.
debbie
Like that Arizona sheriff, Cruz could always go without and then open a GoFundMe when a family member has a health issue. What better right-wing bona fides could there be?
JPL
@g: this
He needs to pick up the phone and call health insurance companies and do some comparison shopping.
Steeplejack
People, you’re missing the obvious. The Cruzes can just go to the emergency room if they have any health problems! Duh.
Anonymous At Work
Option 5A assumes that the Cruz is in it for real and not as a branding-and-grifting exercise.
Yatsuno
@Steeplejack: EMTALA for the win baby!
But seriously, that whole poison pill they wanted to throw into the ACA has turned into anything but. I haven’t heard of any tales of woe from Congressional staffers having to give up their doctors or having to pay through the nose because of Obummercare. Because some Republican would be making major hay about that.
Fourten
In Illinois they call that the “Luck Plan” (those commercials are a riot.)
The Luck Plan, because you’ll be fine…probably
WaterGirl
Richard, this post is great. Informative, yet with the lovely option 2 – reading that was a nice treat this morning.
Ryan
Good ol’ Huckabee tells me that there is a common ingredient in your kitchen that can kill cancer! There really is no need for insurance, unless you break a limb or something.
rikyrah
Freedom…
do number 1, Rafael!!
JPL
@Yatsuno: The Cruz family had a gold package so I’m sure they will notice a few differences Of course, he could still call the insurance companies, if he wanted a better package than is offered on the exchanges.
catclub
@MomSense: It was the opposite of what you suggest. Congresscritters and their staffs have to get insurance from the exchanges AND they no longer get (in the first kerfluffle) the federal employee health benefit of getting the employer to pay 75% of the cost. This was a function of assholes interpreting the rules in the stupidest way possible
(Congresscritters have to be on the exchanges), rather than Congresscritters have to take the insurance on the exchanges but can pay for it as other employees who get a federal health benefit pay for it – the employer subsidizes the cost.
I think this has now been fixed to be what I describe.
Elizabelle
Thing is, Cruz and wife can afford any insurance plan they choose, however they choose. They may not like how much they have to pay, but pay they are able to do.
That is not the case for the vast majority of Americans. States that did not expand Medicaid cannot offer much in subsidies to those who need them to afford meaningful insurance.
Ted Cruz is a very bad person. As are his Republican colleagues, particularly those who are against ACA for political reasons and not merely because they’re too stupid or addled to be able to see its good features.
mai naem mobile
I think Ted should run nekkid. Free as a bird. Hopefully the snakes at his daddy’s snake handling church services won’t bite him or his family.
Skippy-san
FEHB offers more than minimally qualifed policies. Most folks are very happy with the plans offered-and its premiums beat a whole lot of other employer provided plans.
Ejoiner
Here’s what I don’t get – since he’s running against the evil Obamacare being forced on defenseless Americans why not opt for no insurance to oppose the ACA and then make a very big public outcry/pr campaign when pressed to pay the “penalty”? Seems like the optics would fit better for his campaign message.
JPL
@Ejoiner: He’ll campaign that he had better insurance before he was forced on to the exchanges. He’ll be right. Will a reporter ask him why he didn’t use cobra or call insurance companies?
Short answer…no
g
I’m sure Mr. Cruz has really thought out the political optics of this, should he actually (when pigs fly) get elected.
1) Announce that your family’s covered by the ACA
2) Campaign you’ll repeal the act on your first day in office.
3) Upon swearing in, enroll in the federal employee health coverage
4) Repeal the ACA
5) Fuck you, Jack, I got mine.
There goes your inaugural honeymoon.
It’s consistent with his reputation as a Raging Asshole, but it sure highlights his lack of political acumen.
Kylroy
@Ejoiner: No shit. Assuming he’s healthy and wealthy, it’s not like he can’t afford to pay for his healthcare out of pocket. Sure, a cancer diagnosis would probably still tank him financially, but ol’ Calgary Cruz does not strike me as a man who engages in Worst Case Scenario thinking.
Cckids
@JPL:
He’s said that he has no choice but to go on the exchange, because “Obamacare has destroyed the private insurance market”.
Like so much that the R’s vomit out, pure crap that is accepted as gospel by the congregation.
Valdivia
your assignment editors thank you :)