Ted Cruz Will Sign Up for Obamacare, the Law He Hates
The senator's family will lose their health insurace covered by wife's employer
— -- Newly minted presidential candidate Ted Cruz will soon sign up for healthcare coverage through Obamacare, a law he has vigorously fought to repeal since joining the Senate.
"We'll be getting new health insurance and we'll presumably do it through my job with the Senate, and so we'll be on the federal exchange with millions of others," Cruz said in an interview with CNN Tuesday.
Cruz and his family currently have health insurance coverage through his wife’s employer, Goldman Sachs. Cruz's wife, Heidi, is a managing director at the company and will take a leave of absence to campaign for her husband, causing her family to lose their healthcare coverage, according to CNN.
Most members of Congress are required to obtain healthcare coverage through the federal exchanges established by Obamacare. The exception is for those who are covered by Medicare or receive coverage through their spouses, like Cruz previously did.
“Well, it is written in the law that members will be on the exchanges without subsidies just like millions of Americans so that's – I think the same rules should apply to all of us. Members of Congress should not be exempt,” Cruz told the Des Moines Register.
Throughout his three-year Senate career, Cruz has been on a crusade to repeal Obamacare - most notably when he led a 21-hour filibuster against the president's healthcare plan on the Senate floor in 2013. The tactic caused many people to blame Cruz for the government shutdown that lasted for 16 days.
Cruz launched his presidential campaign yesterday on the five-year anniversary of the president signing the Affordable Care Act into law and committed to repealing the legislation if he becomes president in 2017.
"Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who've lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare," Cruz said at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia Tuesday.