Posted on 03/25/2015 2:21:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Yes, Ted Cruz can buy insurance through Obamacare while remaining totally committed to repealing it. Just like his competitors for the 2016 presidential nomination.
Cruz said Tuesday that he and his family will sign up for health insurance through the exchanges created by Obamacare, prompting plenty of chest-beating from Democrats looking to paint Cruz—a staunch opponent of the health care law—as a hypocrite.
But Cruz isn't the only 2016 contender to turn to the exchanges. Sen. Rand Paul signed up when the marketplaces first opened. "It made me an unhappy person," he said at the time.
Sen. Marco Rubio also signed up for coverage through Obamacare's exchange. So did Rep. Paul Ryan. In fact, most members of Congress—yes, including the Republicans who have vowed and voted so many times to repeal the Affordable Care Act—use the exchanges.
So, why are so many of Obamacare's critics covered through Obamacare? Some critics have called Cruz a hypocrite for "going on Obamacare" while continuing to beat the drum for repeal. But Cruz and other Republicans aren't secretly starting to like Obamacare—they've simply backed themselves into a corner where the exchanges are the most rational choice.
"Senator Rubio is following the law, even though he opposes it," a spokeswoman told the Tampa Bay Times when he first signed up.
First of all, let's be clear that Cruz is not "on Obamacare." There is no such thing as being "on Obamacare." It's not an insurance plan, or a single program like Medicare or Social Security. Cruz, Rubio, Ryan, Paul and the 11.7 million other Americans who have used the exchanges are all on private insurance plans, and there are hundreds of them to choose from.
But that's about where the similarities end. Cruz—and Rubio and Ryan and all the rest of lawmakers in the exchanges—aren't really using Obamacare for any of the reasons it exists, or in the same way the other 11-odd million enrollees are.
Most Americans, about 60 percent, get insurance through their jobs. The exchanges are there for people who don't, and therefore have to buy it on their own.
The Cruz family was among the 60 percent of people who get insurance through work. They used to be on the plan offered by Heidi Cruz's company, Goldman Sachs. But she's taking an unpaid leave for the presidential campaign, so they're switching to the coverage offered by Ted Cruz's employer—the federal government.
And if members of Congress want to get health insurance from their employer, the Obamacare exchange in Washington, D.C. is the first place to go.
Members of Congress used to get their health insurance just like any other federal employee, but Obamacare changed that. An amendment from Republican Sen. Charles Grassley kicked lawmakers and their staffers out of the exchange for federal employees; instead, they would have to use an Obamacare exchange. The government can still cover a portion of their premiums, just as almost all large employers do for their employees.
If he really wants to make a point, Cruz can go outside the exchange. But he probably would be purchasing roughly the same coverage — maybe even the exact same policy, just with a more cumbersome shopping process.
The biggest reason for lawmakers to use the exchanges, though, is so the government will be able to make its contribution to their premiums. Cruz has said he will forego that subsidy, which would have covered more than 70 percent of his family's premiums.
The subsidy Cruz passed up — but which other lawmakers are receiving — is not from Obamacare. It's from his job, and it's very common. Americans who have employer-based insurance (remember that's about 60 percent of the country) get, on average, 70 to 80 percent of their premiums paid by their employers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
So, sure, Ted Cruz might go into the exchanges. With most members of Congress. And even if he had taken the government's contribution, that would have been a standard workplace benefit unconnected to the Affordable Care Act.
This whole process is an aberration. It's not an extension of how Obamacare works or what Obamacare does.
Congress shoehorned itself into the exchanges to make a political point ("what's good enough for our constituents is good enough for us"). The Obamacare safety net is not catching Ted Cruz, nor is he surreptitiously hoarding the particular benefits he wants to take away from other people. This is just the awkward process Congress decided on.
The exchanges are there for small businesses and people who don't get coverage through their jobs at all. It might not make a ton of sense that Congress tossed a small sliver of federal employees — people who work for the largest employer in the country, and who have health benefits — into a market for small businesses and the uninsured.
But it also doesn't make a ton of sense to argue that if Ted Cruz hates Obamacare so much, he has to prove it by renouncing standard, non-Obamacare health care benefits that most Americans receive. Which is why his Republican colleagues haven't done so, either.
FORCED TO USE IT MYSELF!
I hear you. Thanks for your thoughtful responses. I appreciate it.
I bet both Walker and Cruz comply with the IRS every year, even if they to get rid of it.
Walker has insurance through his employer, The State of WI. If he was a Congressman or Senator, he would have it through the exchange.
Is that all you got?
I would think that as the spouse of a former President, Hillary’s medical insurance is probably paid for by the likes of we peons and that she can go to whatever doctor she chooses without worrying about commoner issues like a deductible or co-pay.
Have you read the article? Do you have a degree in business or insurance.? Do you have an active Health, Life and Annuity Insurance License in any state? Are you an independent Health Insurance Agent?
As someone who is all those things, I can tell you, you are dead wrong.
Cobra last only a certain time frame. 18 months MAX! In some instances LESS. It is transition insurance. It is also extremely expensive. He is already going from two salaries to only one.I am relatively certain his wife makes as much as he does $170K as a Senior Manager at Goldman Sachs. You might think that is allot of money, IT ISN’T!
He has a wife of child baring age and two small children. He needs health insurance coverage. He is also not extremely wealthy.
His net worth is estimated between $1 million and $4 million. Well off, but not beyond the reach of bankruptcy through unexpected medical expenses by any stretch of the imagination.
Believe me. I know! I have personal experience with sick children, personal illness and even cancer all in the last half decade.
Are you anti-IRS? Have you stopped paying taxes?
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
I’m not directing this critique at Cruz because he’s hopefully carefully calculating everything that he is doing as a presidential candidate. (As indicated in OP, I like that he’s essentially forcing candidates to enroll in Obamacare.)
But regarding the Obamacare insurance mandate, it turns that the Supreme Court has historically clarified that Congress’s Commerce Clause powers don’t apply to regulating insurance policies, even if such policies are negotiated across state borders. This is because such policies are contracts, not commerce.
In fact, take special note of the fourth entry about insurance in the following list of SCOTUS case excerpts. These excerpts help to substantiate that Obama is unconstitutional imo, regardless what the corrupt judicial branch wants us to believe about Obamacare.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress. [emphases added]” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description [emphasis added], as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass.” —Justice Barbour, New York v. Miln., 1837.
”4. The issuing of a policy of insurance is not a transaction of commerce [emphasis added] within the meaning of the latter of the two clauses, even though the parties be domiciled in different States, but is a simple contract of indemnity against loss.” — Paul v. Virginia, 1869. (The corrupt feds have no Commerce Clause (1.8.3) power to regulate insurance.)
“Direct control of medical practice in the states is obviously [emphases added] beyond the power of Congress.” –Linder v. United States, 1925.
In fact, regardless that federal Democrats, RINOs, activist judges and indoctrinated attorneys will argue that if the Constitution doesn’t say that the feds can’t do something then they can do it, the Supreme Court has addressed that foolish idea too. Politically correct interpretations of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (5.2) aside, the Court has clarified in broad terms that powers not delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate intrastate healthcare issues in this case, are prohibited to the feds.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Our US rep told us at a townhall that they are all on Obamacare. They get a certain amount of their premiums paid by the govt just like if you work for IBM you get a certain amoung paid by the employer. But they get the same choices as the rest of us.
Reading your response, I can only wish that we could have Reagan back again.
That’s right.
More Ron.
Reagan is dead. He has been for a long time. He also wasn’t perfect. He had flaws like all of us. He did wonders, but fell quite short of perfection and left the reigns in Bush’s hands. A real problem.
Cruz, Walker, Jindal, Paul And even Rubio are very credible Conservative . Yes, Even Rubio who did stumble early in his Senate career by getting rolled by McCain and Chuck Schumer. He has already righted himself well on the illegal immigration issue. I would, however like him to remain in his Senate seat as he is a shoe in for reelection.
Any one of them would be head and shoulders above Clinton and it would quickly show. I would be quite a bit more comfortable with any of these men as POTUS than any Democrat, particularly a Cinton.
The fact is that the Liberals will always show their hand and tell us who frightens them the most based on the vitriol of their attacks. They hit Cruz and Walker the hardest.
Outside of JEB Bush, they fear all the Republicans. That is why Bush has had the kid glove treatment.
Well I was out with some big libs last night. They’re off Walker for now, and focused on Cruz. Clearly agitated about his candidacy, they brought up- “too inexperienced”, “Top 1%” (wife working for GS), “Canadian born”, and “bashes Obamacare but gladly uses it”. I was clearly outnumbered, and tried to just give them the facts, but these idiots got their marching orders from CNN to destroy him. Considering he’s the only one with the balls who’s been trying to stop Obama, I say they have their work cut out for them.
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