U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, has revealed on the campaign trail that his family no longer is covered by health insurance.
Naturally, he blames the Affordable Care Act: "I’ll tell you, you know who one of those millions of Americans is who’s lost their healthcare because of Obamacare? That would be me," he told an audience in Manchester, N.H., according to Politico. "I don’t have healthcare right now."
If you pay attention, however, you'll discover that Cruz’s quandary is entirely his own fault. His, and his Republican colleagues in the Senate.
You know who one of those millions of Americans is who's lost their healthcare because of Obamacare? That would be me.
- Sen. Ted Cruz, who failed to sign up for 2016 health insurance
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. The carrier decided to move entirely to HMO plans for the individual market. And Cruz didn’t manage to sign up for a new 2016 plan by Dec. 31. That happened even though the insurer announced its decision to close PPO plans way back on July 23. Five months is normally enough for an educated adult to arrange health insurance.
Cruz still has until Jan. 31 to sign up for coverage beginning March 1, and he said he’d be doing that. "We’re in the process of finding another policy," he said. "I hope by the end of the month we’ll have a policy for our family."
In other words,
Cruz’s problem has nothing to do with Obamacare and everything to do with his own sloth — unless the explanation is more sinister, as insurance expert Richard Mayhew of balloon-juice.com speculates: "The Cruz family is currently uninsured to guarantee their father a cheap laugh line."
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