Before the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance market — particularly the private health insurance market — was complicated, expensive ?and unreliable.
The implementation of the ACA has certainly had its hiccups and caused some uncertainty, but that is natural for any large, ?groundbreaking legislation.
And since its implementation, virtually every metric used to measure health insurance accessibility, affordability and quality appears to show the ACA as an incredible success thus far.
But the law is not without its opponents — namely, the entire Republican Congressional Caucus. Perhaps the staunchest of the law’s critics is Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
Cruz has long been a champion of the modern right-wing ideology that is resistant to change and abhors compromising its “conservative principles.”
Since Cruz’s announcement he would run for president of the United States — a pretty scary proposition from the perspective of the Editorial Board — his wife has chosen to leave her lucrative job at Goldman Sachs.
As a result, the Cruz family will lose their health coverage, which had been through his wife’s employer. Cruz then explained that in order to keep his family insured, he would likely need to go through his employer, the United States Senate, which uses the ?Obamacare exchanges.
So now the ACA’s most ardent opponent, the man who actually shut down the government and cost the United States enormous sums just to make a point, is taking advantage of the law himself.
Supporters defended Cruz by saying he has no other choice but to follow the law. This is a reasonable explanation. Even people who hate some of our laws can still obey them without compromising their principles. The ?problem, though, is that it’s wrong.
Ted Cruz does have options. Nowhere in the law is he required to use the exchanges.
In order to prevent himself from compromising his principles, Cruz could refuse the mandate and pay the fine, which would likely be cheaper than his insurance premium anyway. His wife could apply to have her insurance extended for 18 months through COBRA regulations.
Or, if neither of those options seem to work, he could bypass the exchange altogether and navigate the market himself. Sure, it would be complicated, but the man graduated from Princeton and Harvard and claims to be qualified to be president. He should be able to figure it out.
But what Cruz doesn’t realize is that by buying into the exchanges while claiming it is his only option, he is making the case for the ACA. The options outside of the exchanges are difficult, risky and expensive. Coincidently, they are virtually the same options left for people who lost insurance before the law was passed.
By claiming these options make anything but the exchanges cost prohibitive, even for a wealthy and powerful family such as the Cruz’s, how can we expect the average family to afford living without insurance or without ?the ACA?
The ACA has been a powerful force for positive change and has improved access and outcomes for millions of Americans. Perhaps now that Ted Cruz has it himself, he will come around to see that truth.
