Friday, January 22, 2016

I Find This Hard To Believe - No Coverage?


Sorry, but I find this story in Politico pretty hard to believe that Senator Ted Cruz doesn't have any health coverage.  I could see this being the case if he was a self-employed businessman who was hit by hard times in a depressed economic region.  But come on, he works for the government, who offers federal employees all kinds of health insurance options.  

According to the Congressional Research Service, the FEHBP offers about 300 different private health care plans, including five government-wide, fee-for-service plans and many regional health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, plus high-deductible, tax-advantaged plans. All plans cover hospital, surgical and physician services, and mental health services, prescription drugs and “catastrophic” coverage against very large medical expenses. There are no waiting periods for coverage when new employees are hired, and there are no exclusions for preexisting conditions.
Is it that hard for a guy or his staffers to start filling out the paperwork for health insurance?  It's not like he, an Ivy League educated attorney who argued cases in front of the Supreme Court with a wife on leave from Goldman Sachs, couldn't afford the $200/mo employee contribution to an $800/mo family coverage plan.   

I'd be interested in seeing what the fact checking news sites do with this little doozy.  To me, the story doesn't hold water.  However, maybe he really just let his insurance lapse as a political act of defiance against Obamacare, which he blamed for sinking the economy during a 21 hour filibuster in 2013.  

With the financial means and a job that provides numerous health insurance plans to choose from, it's really hard to believe someone working in the Senate is uninsured.  But, politicians have been known to fib from time to time when they need votes from unsuspecting voters.  

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