He said his coverage lapsed because Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas dropped its individual policies and he had not found a new plan by December 31, when those policies ceased.
Not surprisingly, Cruz used the revelation to bash Obamacare.
“I’ll tell you, you know who one of those millions of Americans is who’s lost their health care because of Obamacare? That would be me,” Cruz said, according to Politico. “I don’t have health care right now.”
Let’s point and laugh at him as he is blaming Obama for causing him to be lazy. He is the epitome of the party of personal responsibility.
BCBS of Texas discontinued its PPO plans, they sent notice to all policy holders that specific plans that were massive money losers were being discontinued at the end of 12/31/15. BCBS of Texas offered to map its policy holders to different coverage. There is a federal regulation describing how this mapping can occur. I am trying to figure out why the Cruz family was not passively mapped to a new policy during the autorenewal process.
But no matter what, the Cruz family is currently uninsured to guarantee their father a cheap laugh line that their insurance coverage changes every year because private insurers change their policy offerings, something that never in the history of mankind happened before 3/23/2010!
Honestly, this is not irrational. The Cruz family is wealthy enough to self insure for a month or two. If they are truly screwed with a $2 million dollar single incident claim, they can forget to report a loan from Goldman Sachs. The odds given their ages are highly against that type of scenario, so if it buys him a point or three in Iowa, the gamble makes sense.
UPDATE 1: Congresscritters and their family used to be covered by federally provided insurance. One of the provisions of PPACA that was supposed to be a poison pill mandated that Congresscritters get their insurance on Exchange. That meant Congressional insurance was either going to be Medicare, spousal coverage or a PPACA compliant policy. When Mrs. Cruz went on a leave of absence at Goldman Sachs, she gave up her employer sponsored family coverage and it seems like the Cruz family declined COBRA continuation. So the Cruz family went on a Texas exchange PPO policy for 2015.
Just Some Fuckhead
We need a breathing mandate.
trnc
It isn’t irrational for Cruz, but anyone who chooses to buy his BS is definitely irrational.
mistermix
Not to mention that, as a sitting Senator, he has access to a gold-plated healthcare plan that he chooses not to use.
Baud
I thought he was on his wife’s Goldman Sachs plan.
Tom Levenson
Cruz is a consistent phenomenon. That phenomenon happens to be serving as the type specimen of “asshole”. At which he is surpassingly expert.
Thanks for the exegesis, Richard.
Baud
Maybe he’s trying to outdo Palin’s attempt to blame Obama for her son’s condition.
Granite
I can’t believe Trump is actually going to win the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary. How insane have the Rethuglicans become?
He’s passing Cruz. It looks like game over.
Davebo
I know the BCBS federal employees plan is alive and well in TX which is what I’d assumed he’d be covered under.
Matt McIrvin
Aren’t Senators required to buy their insurance through the exchanges, because of a rule that the Republican Congress established to remove some imaginary “Congressional Obamacare exemption” as a dumb talking point? Or am I imagining that?
Felanius Kootea
This can only mean that Ted Cruz supports Bernie’s plan to take private insurers out of the health business. You know the government would never turf you off your health plan.
Lord Baldrick
Sure is nice for The Man From Calgary that if a daughter was struck by cancer and needed (potentially) decades of treatment to survive, he could get coverage with no worries about pre-existing condition exclusions.
What’s fucking horrible is that this may encourage some of his followers to do the same, lacking his resources to guarantee a favorable outcome.
Utter asshole.
Brachiator
So, does his wife not love him?
Schlemazel
@Brachiator:
Does anyone love him? Even his mother?
My guess is he is lying through his teeth, its one of his ‘charms’
Felanius Kootea
@Brachiator: She took a leave of absence from Goldman to work on his campaign. I’m sure she’d have qualified for COBRA if her dear husband had allowed her to take it (of course, that would mess up his whole “Obamacare sucks” gambit). It’s good to know that he’s willing to gamble with his kids’ health just for a campaign punchline.
MomSense
Seriously, Cruz?? Grow up. Adults don’t blow off their health insurance deadlines. Either Cruz is irresponsible or this is a stunt. Could be both.
boatboy_srq
@mistermix: Didn’t the Teahad insert into the ACA a requirement that Congress (House and Senate both) obtain their coverage from the exchanges (because ACA being so horrible the Dems would never agree to give up that solid-gold coverage, donchano, and the presumed “poison pill” would stop Dems voting for ACA)?
boatboy_srq
It’s rude to the point of dueling offense to wish harm on anyone – but Cruz’ doing this makes him an awfully tempting target for suggestions that he come down with something embarrassing (and exceedingly expensive to treat).
Roger Moore
@mistermix:
Not so much. Somebody inserted a poison pill into PPACA that members of Congress and their staffs would not get standard government health plans but would have to buy their health care on the exchanges. I guess they can also get it from a spouse’s coverage, Medicare (if old enough), or buy on the private market, but they can’t get the same health plan other civilian employees of the federal government get.
JPL
Stupid is as stupid does.
Iowa Old Lady
Holy shit. He’s left his kids uninsured? That’s evil.
Patricia Kayden
Cruz and ilk are breathtakingly stupid so this stunt is not shocking at all. Just shows that he’s not sensible enough to lead this country.
JPL
Did ACA do away with COBRA?
JPL
@efgoldman: So he had lots of options and chose to be a repub. ]
I was gonna say fking idiot but repub says it all.
boatboy_srq
@Matt McIrvin: @Roger Moore: IIRC the GOTea inserted that into the bill expecting Dems to bail on the Exchanges because a) Congressional health plans were solid gold (not merely plated); and b) the plans on the Exchanges had to be sh!t, so the Dems would never agree to it. Unsurprisingly, the Dem backers of ACA were delighted with the proposal (again IIRC it gained ACA a number of votes, rather than losing the entire Dem caucus the way the GOTea anticipated); and the GOTea were caught on completely the wrong foot. Part of the problem with Teahadi conventional wisdom is that when a “government program” really is a good idea they still can’t support it; and they can’t believe that others, who they assume are fully aware that said program is sh!t and are pushing it on the electorate while tiptoeing away from it themselves, would embrace it.
Clem
What is a BCBS federal employees plan? Never heard of it. Maybe they do things different down Texas way.
HRA
He could go to the emergency room for treatment for himself and his family just like a BIL who was in the insurance business decided to do when he dropped his health insurance.
scav
@Iowa Old Lady: They’re patriots, they choose to risk death for the betterment of their county. Or something like that.
Gordon Schumway
@Richard Mayhew:
Because he’s lying?
Mike in NC
Fucking scumbag Texo-Canuck!
Calouste
@scav: I think you’re looking for a different word that ends in -iots.
Poopyman
@Gordon Schumway: Occam’s Razor wins again.
JPL
Sometimes the justice system works
A DeKalb County police officer was indicted for murder Thursday in the March 2015 fatal shooting of an unarmed and naked civilian. link
Pogonip
@Davebo: I suppose he’d be eligible, but the Federal employee plans are for the peasantry. He’d want either the Senatorial plan or his wife’s plan.
That guy is the most repulsive politician I’ve ever seen. I can’t understand his popularity. I’d vote for the town drunk before I’d vote for him.
Sad_Dem
I weep for all the fists that have been unjustly deprived of their rights under natural law to punch his face in.
catclub
@boatboy_srq: The real fly in the ointment was when it came time for congressional employees to sign up on the exchanges, would the previous fringe benefit of government employment – that the Gov pays 3/4ths of the median cost of the policies on the federal exchange (which it does for all the rest of the federal employees) – be applied to the cost of insurance on the exchanges. It was touch and go for a while, because assholes were insisting that “on the Obamacare exchanges” means no standard employer subsidy of health insurance. If that rule had stuck ,and congressional employees were out $15k of benefit that they had gotten in previous years, morale might have suffered, and especially in the offices of those insisting on fucking up Obamacare.
catclub
@Clem: One model for the Obamacare insurance exchanges is/are the federal employees insurance policy exchanges. In open season they send out brochures with the prices and coverages of employee health insurance plans federal employees can sign up for for the coming year. Blue Cross (BCBS) offers a policy.
Patricia Kayden
@Iowa Old Lady: Talk about irresponsible parents. Cruz should be ashamed to admit that he has intentionally left his children uninsured just to make a political point. But that presumes that he has any shame.
Chip Daniels
I for one, am disappointed that the Death Panels are not yet operational.
I’ve got a list, and everything.
Thanks, Obama.
Eric S.
I’ll be curious to see if Richard can determine that Cruz was dropped without an automatic enrollment in another plan. BCBS IL dropped my plan. I received plenty of notice but was lazy and did nothing. I was rolled into a new plan.
I assume Cruz is essentially lying and/or actively did not take the offered replacement and did not choose a new plan.
TriassicSands
The Cruz family members are truly unlucky to have such a colossal idiot as a father or husband. It is criminal to play with the health of his family just so he can score a transparently phony political point.
richard mayhew
@Eric S.: That is my bet… it was active disinterest and disenrollment from the auto-selected plan…. but I am not seeing the HC.gov transaction logs, so it is only a guess
Prescott Cactus
If he were to get a case of Hep C he would be back in Calgary getting his citizenship re-instated and milking the poor Cunuck’s Health Program.
Eric S.
@Pogonip:
I was going to throws my hat in the ring but Baud! got in first.
Note, I’m not accusing Baud of any drinking problems.
jl
@Eric S.: you mean ‘grift’? Edit: Oh, OK, ‘got’.
Don’t worry about accusing Baud of being a drunk, it a key plank in his platform. I think the coming restart of Baud’s failed campaign will center around fart pranks, anyway.
I guess the Cruz stunt is an attempt to recapture his anti-establishment cred. Same time that he says Trump is the ‘establishment’ candidate. He may also be in an unthinking howling rage the Palin abandoned him. He is spouting obvious BS at same time he peddles mysterious tales about his health insurance. Could well be some lying involved.
The puerile juvenile BS going on in the GOP primary is sinking below B-grade reality show level. And, unless some party elders can install Romney, one of these toxic losers liars and grifters will be running for president. Depressing.
Edit: Dole is in the news today, dissing Cruz I think. How is Dole’s health? Maybe the GOP establishment can tap him.
RaflW
So the Cruz family are idiots? Quelle surprise!
raven
@jl: How is any WW 2 combat wounded vets health?
Schlemazel
@Eric S.:
I understand baud’s wife is a practicing thespian and Baud has been seen masticating in public.
I’m Tronald Dump and I approve this message.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
So when does Cruz report to Federal Prison? After all, it’s illegal for him not to have health insurance any more. Tyrant Obama no doubt has sent the Federal Marshals to Manchester NH to pick him up after Cruz’s even there today.
Amirite?
No? Oh, he’ll just have to pay a fine.
/snark
I wonder how many reporters have asked him why people should vote for someone who is breaking the law and bragging about it…
Cheers,
Scott.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Jesus Christ in a prom dress… how could he think anyone would buy this bullshit? Not to mention what you all are saying so eloquently about his irresponsibility as a parent. Simply nauseating.
Iowa Old Lady
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: That thought had just occurred to me too. I think my hatred for Cruz just got bigger.
Schlemazel
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Remember he is talking to people who believe Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and wants to take their guns and put them in reeducation camps. People who believe climate change is not happening & man could not change the climate. People who believe they are poor because of taxes and that tax cuts are a magic fairy that will rain money on them.
The common clay of the new West. You know, morons.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
So members of Congress can pick the Cadillac plans on the ACA, have their employer pick up most of the tab while they pull six figure salaries, and yet they can still truthfully (if disingenuously) brag that they have to get their healthcare from the ACA just like decent, hardworking Americans.
That looks like a win-win-win-win to me. I must be missing something here – where is the poison pill?
Schlemazel
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Oh thats an easy one! The law is unconstitutional because Republicans do not approve of it. The law is illegal and breaking it is every true patriots duty.
For how that works please see my previous post.
jl
@Mandalay: The poison pill was a sad attempt to throw a wrench into the works, and it failed. Except that now, the current situation gives GOPers some dishonest BS talking points.
amk
so, has the fucker paid the penalty yet? Or does it kick in only next year?
Mai.naem.mobile
Okay I might be wrong about this but the way I understood COBRA when I was given paperwork for it was that it was good for 2 years and that you could get on it at any point during the two years as long as you made up all the payments you missed and you weren’t in the middle of an acute illness. So assuming Mrs Cruz isn’t past the 2 year mark she can go on COBRA. Also too, Cruz4POTUS2016 should be a company providing health benefits so he should be able to get it under that.
Sad_Dem
@Pogonip:
Remember that smarmy SOB who was the debate team leader in high school that nobody liked, not even the teachers? Like Nixon, Cruz is the champion of every social zero whose soul curdled in resentment. Ask the teacher for homework on a Friday. Tell the boss that your single mom coworker was late but not that she drove her kid to the emergency room. Be the biggest tool you can be just to show them all.
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
maybe they would stop popping off and shooting their mouths off all the time
Calouste
@TriassicSands: I say the family members are unlucky to have such a colossal idiot as a father, however having such a colossal idiot as a husband is purely by choice.
Jinchi
I remember during the health care fight, when Republicans were urging young people not to get insurance. Tucker Carlson was bragging about how he went without insurance as a young adult and thought that it was a great way for 20 year-olds to save money. As though he wasn’t effectively covered by his immensely wealthy family. Most people can’t afford to lose that gamble. Cruz is going to be completely covered if anything happens.
Mai.naem.mobile
I’ve said this before Cruz just comes across as somebody with skeletons in the closet – a self hating deep in the closet ghey, into kinky stuff like double latex suit sachs/diaper sachs/wearing wimmens underwear sachs,cross dresser, or wife/child abuser. Just stuff he can’t handle personally.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mai.naem.mobile: I am pretty sure he has a murder room somewhere – like in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Citizen_X
Wait–the most punchable man in America has no health insurance? If true (big if) it seriously raises the reward/risk ratio for doing said punching. And yes, that would be assault, and I would get my ass kicked by his bodyguards, but as they dragged my bleeding body past his, I could yell out, “Sucks to be you, Cruz! At least I have Obamacare! Ah hahahahaha!”
keithly
@Eric S.: Ah, yes, but the key is to make Baud deny it.
chopper
@efgoldman:
he’d just deliberately piss all over himself and blame Obama for it.
Omnes Omnibus
@keithly: Baud denies nothing!
rikyrah
So, his wife and kids have no health insurance?
DA PHUQ???
NorthLeft12
.
This. A million times this.
Put another way; Republicans have made careers out of complaining that government does too much. What they are actually complaining about is that government does too much for other people, and not enough for them and theirs.