By: Jason Easleymore from Jason Easley
Saturday, January 23rd, 2016, 12:03 pm
Ted Cruz’s recent claim in New Hampshire that he does not have health insurance has been revealed to be a complete and total lie. It turns out that Cruz and his family have always had coverage.
While campaigning in New Hampshire on Thursday, Sen. Cruz claimed that he was currently without health insurance, “You know who one of those millions of Americans who’s lost their health care because of Obamacare? That would be me. I don’t have health care right now. I had purchased an individual policy, and Blue Cross Blue Shield canceled all their individual policies in the state of Texas effective December 31st. So our health care got canceled. We got a notice in the mail. Blue Cross Blue Shield was leaving the market.”
His didn’t make sense because people don’t get only a single letter in the mail and dropped. What Cruz was describing did not sound real because it wasn’t.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Cruz campaign was forced to admit that he had been moved to another plan:
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Friday that Mr. Cruz’s insurance broker had told him that he lost his health coverage when his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas preferred provider organization or PPO, policy terminated on Dec. 31.
But Mr. Cruz had in fact been automatically enrolled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in another, narrower-network “health maintenance organization” plan that kept him covered in January.
Customers don’t get one letter and dropped. If the customer does not pick a new plan in the marketplace, their insurance provider moves them to a new plan automatically.
Like most Republicans, Cruz has to lie to attack the Affordable Care Act. Since the law is working, the GOP has to lie and invent dire circumstances to paint a picture of failure.
The truth about Ted Cruz’s health insurance situation makes the case for Obamacare. Cruz was not tossed off of his insurance. He was not left uninsured. Unlike the old system, his insurance company didn’t get to drop him and say sorry about your luck.
Ted Cruz has no conscience. He will lie about anything if he thinks it will help get elected president. The problem with Cruz’s lie about Obamacare is that it proves that the law is working.
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/23/ted-cruz-busted-lying-health-insurance.html
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Ted Cruz Continues to Wrestle With His Own Health Insurance
When it comes to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s health insurance in the past year, it hasn’t been simple.
The Texas senator first drew attention to his own coverage status last March. He had been on his wife’s workplace insurance at Goldman Sachs, but he said that her departure from the firm would likely require him to use one of the Affordable Care Act’s online portals to sign up for health coverage.
That triggered a round of opinions suggesting Mr. Cruz, a vocal opponent of the 2010 health law, was either a victim of the changes it made to health coverage, or a hypocrite for benefiting from those same changes, which included subsidies for members of Congress and their staff.
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Ultimately Mr. Cruz opted to buy a private Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan directly from the insurer and didn’t use an online exchange, his spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said last month.
In buying the plan this way, he didn’t receive a subsidy to offset the cost of his premiums. In the exchanges, that subsidy is offered to lawmakers and their staff as an employer benefit, akin to the one they received before the health law was implemented.
That move sidestepped much of the controversy over whether members of Congress who do take such a subsidy are getting a special deal, and left open to your interpretation whether Mr. Cruz won or lost from the health law’s individual insurance provisions that bar insurers from denying coverage to sicker people but in the process raise the cost of premiums for healthy people.
But things got confusing all over again Thursday, when Mr. Cruz ticked off criticisms of the Affordable Care Act and told an audience in Manchester, N.H., that his straight-from-the-insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan had been canceled at the end of the year, along with all other individual policies in the state of Texas effective Dec. 31. He said he was still in the process of trying to find a new policy, but that his premium for the year ahead would likely be 50% higher than he had paid before.
Mr. Cruz also said that as a result, “I don’t have health care right now,” noting ruefully that “when you let your health insurance policy lapse, your wife gets really ticked at you.”
Mr. Cruz’s campaign officials wouldn’t immediately offer more details on Mr. Cruz’s insurance.
Mr. Cruz’s statement highlights the complexity of health insurance, especially when it intersects with the politics of Obamacare.
Indeed, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas terminated most of its preferred-provider-organization plans for 2016 — and that many shoppers faced tough choices as a result. (We wrote about the options one Texas family was weighing in a Page One story here.) But Blue Cross and Blue Shield didn’t stop selling all individual policies in Texas, continuing to offer a narrower network product. It says that customers whose PPO plans were canceled were moved to the narrower network products unless they took other steps to opt out.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield said it couldn’t comment on Mr. Cruz’s insurance status.
“Federal law prohibits us from talking about the care and services we provide to any particular member. What I can say is we continue to offer a variety of products and services to individuals and groups throughout the state of Texas,” said Greg Thompson, a spokesman for Health Care Service Corp., the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.
“Individual members would have been transitioned to other plans we offer in 2016 so they would not experience a gap in coverage. Those that have been transitioned also have the option of choosing different plans for 2016. We worked with the members and their providers to minimize the impact of this change to their ongoing care, particularly if they needed to transfer their care to other providers.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/...ues-to-wrestle-with-his-own-health-insurance/
***********************
In Reversal, Campaign Says Ted Cruz Does Have Health Insurance
9:59 pm ET
Jan 22, 2016 201
9:59 pm ET
By LOUISE RADNOFSKY
Ted Cruz has health insurance, and he had it all along, his campaign said Friday night, reversing what the presidential candidate said a day earlier.
Mr. Cruz told a Manchester, N.H., audience on Thursday that he was currently uninsured — which he said infuriated his wife –after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas canceled many individual policies, including his. As a result, Mr. Cruz said he was now looking to buy a new plan at sharply higher premiums, a turn of events he attributed to the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. Mr. Cruz has been a harsh critic of the health law.
But it turns out he was never uninsured. So why did he think he had lost coverage and didn’t have any currently?
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Friday that Mr. Cruz’s insurance broker had told him that he lost his health coverage when his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas preferred provider organization, or PPO, policy terminated on Dec. 31.
But Mr. Cruz had in fact been automatically enrolled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in another, narrower-network “health maintenance organization” plan that kept him covered in January. As we reported earlier, when we explained the headache on Friday, that’s what the insurer said it did for all customers in his situation — even if Mr. Cruz didn’t know it.
Based on the information from his insurance broker, “Sen. Cruz believed the family was uninsured and asked the broker to pull quotes immediately for a new policy,” Ms. Frazier said. “The Cruz family is currently covered by a Blue Cross HMO.”
Not for long, though. Mr. Cruz recently arranged to get a new policy that is closer to the kind of coverage he had before, and will be a Humana enrollee effective March 1 in one of their wider-network PPO plans. That’s what will cost him around 50% more than he was paying in 2015, Ms. Frazier said.
As we’ve reported before, Mr. Cruz is in a similar boat to a lot of Texans in this respect — a beneficiary of the new protections of the Affordable Care Act for individual insurance coverage, but also on the sharp end of insurance market turmoil and price-changes that those changes have brought.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/...ed-cruz-has-health-insurance-no-coverage-gap/
Saturday, January 23rd, 2016, 12:03 pm
Ted Cruz’s recent claim in New Hampshire that he does not have health insurance has been revealed to be a complete and total lie. It turns out that Cruz and his family have always had coverage.
While campaigning in New Hampshire on Thursday, Sen. Cruz claimed that he was currently without health insurance, “You know who one of those millions of Americans who’s lost their health care because of Obamacare? That would be me. I don’t have health care right now. I had purchased an individual policy, and Blue Cross Blue Shield canceled all their individual policies in the state of Texas effective December 31st. So our health care got canceled. We got a notice in the mail. Blue Cross Blue Shield was leaving the market.”
His didn’t make sense because people don’t get only a single letter in the mail and dropped. What Cruz was describing did not sound real because it wasn’t.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Cruz campaign was forced to admit that he had been moved to another plan:
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Friday that Mr. Cruz’s insurance broker had told him that he lost his health coverage when his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas preferred provider organization or PPO, policy terminated on Dec. 31.
But Mr. Cruz had in fact been automatically enrolled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in another, narrower-network “health maintenance organization” plan that kept him covered in January.
Customers don’t get one letter and dropped. If the customer does not pick a new plan in the marketplace, their insurance provider moves them to a new plan automatically.
Like most Republicans, Cruz has to lie to attack the Affordable Care Act. Since the law is working, the GOP has to lie and invent dire circumstances to paint a picture of failure.
The truth about Ted Cruz’s health insurance situation makes the case for Obamacare. Cruz was not tossed off of his insurance. He was not left uninsured. Unlike the old system, his insurance company didn’t get to drop him and say sorry about your luck.
Ted Cruz has no conscience. He will lie about anything if he thinks it will help get elected president. The problem with Cruz’s lie about Obamacare is that it proves that the law is working.
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/23/ted-cruz-busted-lying-health-insurance.html
****************************
Ted Cruz Continues to Wrestle With His Own Health Insurance
When it comes to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s health insurance in the past year, it hasn’t been simple.
The Texas senator first drew attention to his own coverage status last March. He had been on his wife’s workplace insurance at Goldman Sachs, but he said that her departure from the firm would likely require him to use one of the Affordable Care Act’s online portals to sign up for health coverage.
That triggered a round of opinions suggesting Mr. Cruz, a vocal opponent of the 2010 health law, was either a victim of the changes it made to health coverage, or a hypocrite for benefiting from those same changes, which included subsidies for members of Congress and their staff.
More In Ted Cruz
Donald Trump Calls Ted Cruz 'Anchor Baby' in Latest Eligibility Jab
Thursday's Republican Debates -- Live Blog
Trump Accused of Backing Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants in TV Ad
Iowa Evangelicals Still Like Mike Huckabee, but See Ted Cruz as Better Bet
Ted Cruz Reserves Venue for One-on-One Debate With Donald Trump
Ultimately Mr. Cruz opted to buy a private Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan directly from the insurer and didn’t use an online exchange, his spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said last month.
In buying the plan this way, he didn’t receive a subsidy to offset the cost of his premiums. In the exchanges, that subsidy is offered to lawmakers and their staff as an employer benefit, akin to the one they received before the health law was implemented.
That move sidestepped much of the controversy over whether members of Congress who do take such a subsidy are getting a special deal, and left open to your interpretation whether Mr. Cruz won or lost from the health law’s individual insurance provisions that bar insurers from denying coverage to sicker people but in the process raise the cost of premiums for healthy people.
But things got confusing all over again Thursday, when Mr. Cruz ticked off criticisms of the Affordable Care Act and told an audience in Manchester, N.H., that his straight-from-the-insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan had been canceled at the end of the year, along with all other individual policies in the state of Texas effective Dec. 31. He said he was still in the process of trying to find a new policy, but that his premium for the year ahead would likely be 50% higher than he had paid before.
Mr. Cruz also said that as a result, “I don’t have health care right now,” noting ruefully that “when you let your health insurance policy lapse, your wife gets really ticked at you.”
Mr. Cruz’s campaign officials wouldn’t immediately offer more details on Mr. Cruz’s insurance.
Mr. Cruz’s statement highlights the complexity of health insurance, especially when it intersects with the politics of Obamacare.
Indeed, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas terminated most of its preferred-provider-organization plans for 2016 — and that many shoppers faced tough choices as a result. (We wrote about the options one Texas family was weighing in a Page One story here.) But Blue Cross and Blue Shield didn’t stop selling all individual policies in Texas, continuing to offer a narrower network product. It says that customers whose PPO plans were canceled were moved to the narrower network products unless they took other steps to opt out.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield said it couldn’t comment on Mr. Cruz’s insurance status.
“Federal law prohibits us from talking about the care and services we provide to any particular member. What I can say is we continue to offer a variety of products and services to individuals and groups throughout the state of Texas,” said Greg Thompson, a spokesman for Health Care Service Corp., the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.
“Individual members would have been transitioned to other plans we offer in 2016 so they would not experience a gap in coverage. Those that have been transitioned also have the option of choosing different plans for 2016. We worked with the members and their providers to minimize the impact of this change to their ongoing care, particularly if they needed to transfer their care to other providers.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/...ues-to-wrestle-with-his-own-health-insurance/
***********************
In Reversal, Campaign Says Ted Cruz Does Have Health Insurance
9:59 pm ET
Jan 22, 2016 201
9:59 pm ET
By LOUISE RADNOFSKY
Ted Cruz has health insurance, and he had it all along, his campaign said Friday night, reversing what the presidential candidate said a day earlier.
Mr. Cruz told a Manchester, N.H., audience on Thursday that he was currently uninsured — which he said infuriated his wife –after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas canceled many individual policies, including his. As a result, Mr. Cruz said he was now looking to buy a new plan at sharply higher premiums, a turn of events he attributed to the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. Mr. Cruz has been a harsh critic of the health law.
But it turns out he was never uninsured. So why did he think he had lost coverage and didn’t have any currently?
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Friday that Mr. Cruz’s insurance broker had told him that he lost his health coverage when his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas preferred provider organization, or PPO, policy terminated on Dec. 31.
But Mr. Cruz had in fact been automatically enrolled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in another, narrower-network “health maintenance organization” plan that kept him covered in January. As we reported earlier, when we explained the headache on Friday, that’s what the insurer said it did for all customers in his situation — even if Mr. Cruz didn’t know it.
Based on the information from his insurance broker, “Sen. Cruz believed the family was uninsured and asked the broker to pull quotes immediately for a new policy,” Ms. Frazier said. “The Cruz family is currently covered by a Blue Cross HMO.”
Not for long, though. Mr. Cruz recently arranged to get a new policy that is closer to the kind of coverage he had before, and will be a Humana enrollee effective March 1 in one of their wider-network PPO plans. That’s what will cost him around 50% more than he was paying in 2015, Ms. Frazier said.
As we’ve reported before, Mr. Cruz is in a similar boat to a lot of Texans in this respect — a beneficiary of the new protections of the Affordable Care Act for individual insurance coverage, but also on the sharp end of insurance market turmoil and price-changes that those changes have brought.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/...ed-cruz-has-health-insurance-no-coverage-gap/
