Ted Cruz’s Latest Stunt: Ted Cruz Get’s ObamaCare

Ted Cruz may “get ObamaCare” or as we like to call it “buying health insurance”. Ted Cruz is a showman and we expect he’ll use this experince as a stunt, if he does decide to go through with it.

The Texas Senator later said, “he wasn’t going to use cost assistance and was going to pick the best plan for his family”, so gears may have already been switched between media blip A and media blip B. Depending upon the plans offered in his region, the best plan without cost assistance may or may not be on the Marketplace.

The Video of Ted Cruz Saying He Will Get ObamaCare

In this Video the Senator discusses using the Marketplace and getting covered through his employer like the rest of America. It strikes the host and the listener as odd at first, then he throws in a jab at the Congress exclusion myth (the exclusion was meant for staffers not for Congresspeople). It leaves us questioning if he is simply acting more Presidential or if he has a plan up his sleeve to show how bad ObamaCare is. Considering this is the guy who spent 12 hours grandstanding during a Government shutdown reading Dr. Seuss it’s hard not to not lean toward the “plan up his sleeve” theory.

Ted Cruz and The Health insurance Marketplace

First it’s important to note that ObamaCare is slang for the PPACA and all Ted is really saying his that he is going to use the Health Insurance Marketplace (which was created by one of the hundreds of provisions in the law) to shop for private insurance.

If his family plans to claim between 100% – 400% of the Federal Poverty Line in Texas for 2016 they would be eligible for cost assistance (subsidies were established as another provision in the law). Although, as we said he doesn’t plan to take cost assistance.

Aside from a few website related technically difficulties he may or may not experince, the bulk of his experince will be purchasing private coverage in a regulated free market system. It’ll be interesting to see, if does use the exchanges, what parts of his experince he attributes to ObamaCare and what parts he correctly attributes to the rest of the healthcare system. This could be an opportunity to show why we need further reform, but will most likely just be a set-up for another good ol’ Ted Cruz publicity stunt.

How Ted Cruz Can Have a Good Experince

If Ted Cruz wants to shop smart either on or off the Marketplace he will need to do the same thing:

• Figure out his families medical costs and needs by looking at past history and knowledge of what they will need this year.
• Choose a plan that has smart cost sharing amounts based on what services they think they will need and treats services they will need as “covered benefits”
• Make sure he chooses a network that will have providers in his area and probably go with a multi-state PPO to ensure he is covered when he travels. He may also consider having some cost sharing limits out-of-network.

The Take-away

Ted Cruz post Presidential announcement seems like less of a showman and more of a person. He still hasn’t dropped the far-right political views, but even if it was only for CNN he expressed the very smart far-right view of saying “I think we should follow every law, even the ones I don’t agree with”. Maybe Ted is stepping up to the plate and trying to appeal to the rest of America, or perhaps he is using his charisma and intellect to throw us off our game while he makes a big set-up for proving his repeal the safety net for a smaller Government stance.