{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Ted Cruz ‘still weighing options’ on Obamacare - Jonathan Topaz - POLITICO

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/ted-cruz-obamacare-116408.html?hp=c3_3

Ted Cruz 'still weighing options' on Obamacare - Jonathan Topaz

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Sen. Ted Cruz hasn't made a final decision on whether he will sign up for Obamacare but will make up his mind "in the coming days," a spokesman said Wednesday.

Rick Tyler, national spokesman for the Texas Republican's newly-launched presidential campaign, also defended Cruz against charges of hypocrisy for suggesting that he might enroll in Affordable Care Act health exchanges.

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"Senator Cruz and his wife are still weighing options for their family," Tyler wrote in an email to POLITICO when asked about the senator's current thinking in enrolling in an ACA health insurance exchange, adding that the senator would make a decision shortly.

Tyler said the senator — who has vigorously opposed and vowed to repeal Obamacare — was subject to a law with which he disagrees. "That's like saying he's not going to pay the taxes he voted against," he wrote.

The senator and his family had been covered through the plan his wife, Heidi, got through her job as a managing director at Goldman Sachs in Houston. But they will lose that coverage as she takes an unpaid leave to work on his presidential campaign. That means Cruz and his wife have a decision to make regarding their family health insurance.

Under an amendment to Obamacare sponsored by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, lawmakers and some of their staffers can only get a government subsidy for health insurance if they enroll in the D.C. Obamacare health exchange and if they are not on Medicare or on a family member's plan.

Cruz — like several other Republicans have said in the past — said he would not accept the federal subsidy if he were to enroll, which his spokesman reiterated Wednesday. It's the same subsidy that lawmakers got through the federal health insurance program they were in before the Affordable Care Act passed. They aren't available for the income-related subsidies middle- and lower-income Americans using the Obamacare exchanges can get.

If Cruz chooses not to sign up for the ACA health exchange, he could enroll in a private insurance plan outside of Obamacare, and pay the full cost. Tyler said the Cruz family was still determining whether they might be eligible through COBRA coverage through Goldman Sachs. The firm did not respond to a request for comment. COBRA is mainly for people who have lost a job and want to keep their health plan, and is sometimes available in other job-change circumstances. Anyone enrolling in COBRA has to pay the whole cost.

Cruz's statement that he would "presumably" sign up for insurance through Obamacare — first reported Tuesday by the Des Moines Register — has delighted many progressives. Several liberal blogs have argued that the senator would be actively choosing to enroll in Obamacare — not being compelled under law, as he has suggested — given his ability to apply for private insurance or possibly to get COBRA coverage.

"Obamacare has driven the whole industry, though," Tyler said when pressed on that point in a separate phone interview. "It's not as if the new private plans have been all preserved. They haven't. Everything was affected by Obamacare."

Cruz, who Monday became the first Republican to launch an official 2016 presidential campaign, has been among the most outspoken opponents of the Affordable Care Act since arriving in the Senate. He has been criticized by many in both parties for his hardline push against the ACA in 2013 — which included a 21-hour-plus filibuster on the Senate floor — that helped lead to the federal government shutdown. During that speech, he compared those who would relent on defunding Obamacare to people who gave up the fight against the Nazis. "Look, we saw in Britain, Neville Chamberlain, who told the British people, 'Accept the Nazis. Yes, they'll dominate the continent of Europe, but that's not our problem. Let's appease them,'" he said.

The ACA continues to be a focus of his attention — including at the launch of his presidential campaign Monday at Virginia's Liberty University.

"Imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare," he said.

Ted Cruz 'still weighing options' on Obamacare - Jonathan Topaz - POLITICO
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/ted-cruz-obamacare-116408.html?hp=c3_3‎

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