Posted on 04/06/2015 10:32:46 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Did Cruz really sign up for Obamacare hoping the Supreme Court would nix the subsidies, giving him a ready-made horror story? Yeah, probably.
There are just so many interesting questions about Ted Cruz, are there not? Okay, maybe not that many. But the one of keenest interest by far to me is: Does he really think he can get away with manufacturing a fake personal Obamacare horror story and peddle it in Dogpatch and get votes with it?
Here’s the situation. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, recently took a leave of absence from her big Wall Street job at Goldman Sachs. The Cruz family was on her health plan. Cruz announced with fanfare and to much amusement about two weeks ago that he and the family would be going on Obamacare, over which he singlehandedly shut down the federal government and whose every word he has vowed 18,674 times to repeal.
There has been lots of speculation about why. Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel wrote on March 24 that Cruz, in saying he was choosing Obamacare because he wanted to “follow the text of the law,” was “contrasting his sacrifice with the law-dodging ruthlessness of the Obama administration.” Then last week Brian Beutler upped the ante, laying out the following a new theory in The New Republic.
Cruz, he wrote, wants to go on Obamacare in the hope that the Supreme Court, in the King v. Burwell case, rules against the federal subsidies. Such a decision would end the subsidies in states that did not set up their own health-care exchanges. Texas, where Cruz is officially domiciled, is one of those states. If the subsidies are struck down, premiums in states like Texas are expected to shoot up. That means Ted Cruz’s premiums will shoot up. Thus, he’ll have a personal Obamacare nightmare to retail on the stump. Pure gold.
Lest you think I’m being conspiratorial, and this is too devious and twisted even for the mind of Ted Cruz, hear me out on this point: There would appear to be no reason that Cruz had to choose Obamacare. The Cruz family in all likleihood had two other options. First, they could presumably have continued his wife’s Goldman Sachs coverage through COBRA, the law that allows ex-employees of a workplace to keep that workplace health coverage for 18 months provided they pay for all of it.
A second option would have been to purchase health coverage on the individual market but outside the exchanges. That is, outside of Washington, D.C., and Vermont, where the law was set up such that everything runs through the exchanges, a person can buy regular-old, non-Obamacare insurance by just going to insurance companies’ websites and toll-free lines, or by going through an insurance broker.
There could be reasons not to do COBRA. The ex-employee has to pay the whole cost of the premiums, as opposed to just the employee’s share (for most people, around a quarter of the cost). So COBRA isn’t cheap. But the Cruzes aren’t exactly poor, and besides there are very good reasons to take COBRA (you get to keep the plan you’ve been on and are familiar with, stay in the same physician network).
But the weirder mystery is why he didn’t just buy coverage not through the exchange. It sure seems to me that buying non-Obamacare coverage would be kind of the obvious thing to do for one who so detests Obamacare. I put these two specific questions, about COBRA and non-exchange coverage, to Cruz’s campaign press person last week but got no reply.
Now, ir Cruz ever does have to answer specific questions about COBRA or non-ACA coverage, I’m sure he’ll just hop up on Rocinante and thunder rhetoric to the effect that if my people must suffer, But it’s nonsense. First of all, his people don’t have to suffer; as I noted, anyone in the great state of Texas who wants to buy non-Obamacare coverage is free to do so. The reason to get coverage through Obamacare, and the reason that something close to 900,000 Texans have enrolled in Obamacare, is to get the subsidies. The subsidies can only be had through Obamacare. But the Cruzes, even on only his Senate salary, make too much money for subsidies. So there was no point in him taking Obamacare.
Thus it seems obvious to me: He chose Obamacare hoping that the Supremes strike the subsidies down, after which Texas premiums—and more to the point, his own—skyrocket, and he gets to go out on the campaign trail and go into hysterics about the enormous personal damage Obamacare has done to him, his dear wife, and his two beautiful little girls. I mean, you can just hear him now, can’t you, ladling on the sauce, tear forming in the corner of his eye? They’ll eat it up in Iowa like double-bacon corn dogs at the state fair.
Or will they? Are people that stupid? Probably, when the assertion is something they want to believe anyway (Obamacare is evil). But surely some of his opponents will call him out. Jeb Bush: “People of Iowa, stop and think! He had other options and chose Obamacare in the very hope that his premiums would go up! He’s playing you for rubes!” That could work. But as a rule, people don’t generally appreciate being told they’re rubes. Especially by a man (Jeb) they pretty clearly don’t like.
The media might start snooping around these matters a little more if Cruz actually starts doing that on the stump. Right now, this scenario is just the conjecture (albeit the informed conjecture) of liberal journalists. But if it comes to pass, the Cruzes will have a lot more explaining to do about COBRA and non-Obamacare coverage.
And finally, the Supreme Court could foil everything by upholding the subsidies in its upcoming King decision. Then he’ll be stuck with the worst of both worlds: enrolled in Obamacare with no sob story to tell about it. He’ll invent some woe, of course. He’ll have to. He can’t leave America with the impression that the Cruz family is happy with its Obamacare coverage, even—especially—if it happens to be true.
He has to have “standing” to be able to get rid of it through the courts.
Banjos and river rapids...
Surprised they haven’t had to pump this writer’s stomach yet. There were rumors in the 1970s about Rod Stewart at a concert but this guy’s servicing of the Obama administration puts that volume to shame.
Or will they? Are people that stupid? Probably, when the assertion is something they want to believe anyway (Obamacare is evil).
I can't objectively be against Øbozocare because it forced the elimination of my care plan and made rates skyrocket up toward the stratosphere. No, it can only be because I'm stupid.
FU tomasky
I’m just enjoying, really enjoying, how the Left is obssessively twisting itself into logical pretzels trying to back everything Cruz says and does into some kind of convoluted tinfoil hat style theory.
Isn’t there a provision in Obamacare requiring congressmen and senator buy health insurance through the exchange if the don’t have other coverage?
I like Cruz even MORE!! Tomorrow is a great day too!!
“Isnt there,a provision in Obamacare requiring Congressmen and Senators to buy (Obamacare)...
Facts have never stood in the way of an old fadhioned attempted liberal smear story, have they?
Gee.
After 40 years, I really had forgotten all about that gross Rod Stewart rumor.
Then you had to mention it.
You just HAD to.
Now I need another 40 years to cleanse my brain again ...
Extrapolation from fantasy. The ultimate “what-if.”
But the Cruzes, even on only his Senate salary, make too much money for subsidies. So there was no point in him taking Obamacare.
Yes, they are supposed to buy through the exchanges and they don’t get ‘subsidies’ per se but they do get the amount paid toward their insurance through the government that they used to get paid toward their insurance.
Ted Cruz said he will not take it but will pay the full price hisself.
The writer is stupid if he doesn’t know that....or willfully lieing.
Isn’t there a provision in Obamacare requiring congressmen and senator buy health insurance through the exchange if the don’t have other coverage?
The only other thing he could have done is gone on COBRA for 18 months while he is running for President and then get back on his wife’s insurance when they are done when she returns to work.
Facts have never stood in the way of an old fadhioned attempted liberal smear story, have they?
They could have gone with COBRA another option that kept their insurance that way and then when she goes back to work the transition to Goldman Sacks would be easy.
My doctor works inside a hospital. When I told his receptionist I had no insurance and asked how much the visit would cost she looked at me with a blank expression. “I have no idea. We’ll have to wait for accounting to tell us.” At the end of the visit I was clearly dismissed so I told the nurse I needed to pay. Again a blank look. She said, “well, I guess they’ll send you a bill.” One evil created by “insurance” is that the people rendering the service and the people receiving the service do not know, or care, how much the service costs. I have no idea whether this visit, necessary because it’s the only way to get my prescription renewed, costs $130, $360 or $1,500. Neither does the doctor, his nurse or his office help. So, somebody please tell me how the government will control costs?
It is free then, right?
“It is free then, right?”
The prescription is supposed to last for one year. But they automatically made a follow-on appointment for five months from that day. I will call and cancel it as there has been no change in my prescription or condition since it was diagnosed five years ago. So, if I want the prescription again next year I will need to pay for this visit. The automatic appointment for no reason and no cause is similar to a tax they charge just to be available. Most people, those with insurance and I suspect my doctor has zero other self-pays, pay a pittance copay and don’t care that the visit is billed at $250, $350 or a $1,000 to their insurance. That, is the problem with “insurance.”
“Ted Cruz ... : Does he really think he can get away with manufacturing a fake personal Obamacare horror story and peddle it in Dogpatch and get votes with it?”
Tomasky, and his buds in Fagpatch, are going to be beyond insane in another year as the full realization of a Cruz presidency haunts them.
You make it sound like “after he loses she’ll go back to work” or some such. You’re THAT confident in the the Wisconsin Wonderboy? I’ll bet you a steak dinner you’re wrong.
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