The wife of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who led a vocal effort to defund the Affordable Care Act, confirmed in a New York Times interview published Wednesday that the senator receives health care coverage through her blue-chip employer insurance plan.
“Ted is on my health care plan,” Heidi Nelson Cruz, a Houston-based managing director for Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, told the newspaper.
A spokeswoman for the Texas senator confirmed the coverage to the Times, which was worth at least $20,000 a year, according to Goldman.
“The senator is on his wife’s plan, which comes at no cost to the taxpayer and reflects a personal decision about what works best for their family,” spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) had tried to draw that information out of Cruz during his 21-hour floor speech on defunding Obamacare back in September. When Durbin asked him to explain whether his family was covered by the congressional health plan, the Texas senator’s response was vague.
“I’m happy to tell you now I am eligible for it and I am not currently covered under it,” Cruz responded, as quoted by the Huffington Post.
Cruz wouldn’t rule out pushing the government to the brink of a shutdown again in order to defund the health care law, arguing that the law continues to cause health care premiums to skyrocket and workers to lose their employer plans.
