Ted Cruz has devoted his political life to
running for president saving the nation from the evils of health insurance. Some of his constituents in Texas would
really prefer he didn't.
Stacy Anderson, from Fort Worth, runs her own business selling sweaters online. She says she has not had health insurance for the past seven years because the sweater business is not too lucrative. "It cost more than I made some months," she says. Anderson says she was just diagnosed with skin cancer, though it is not life-threatening. "I've had it, apparently, for the entire seven years I've been uninsured," she says. "It will be nice if I can buy health insurance and get it treated."
Jeffrey Coffey is a 49-year-old from Austin who earns a living as a musician. He says has insurance, but notes that the $361 monthly premium is "way expensive" on his $22,000 salary; he says he pays more because he has asthma. Coffey says he applied for cheaper plans numerous times this year, but was turned down. "Getting rejection letters is depressing," he says. When Coffey buys insurance on the exchange, he estimates he will able to get coverage for $160 a month, a $200 savings. "But so far I haven't been able to log on to the website," he adds.
Andrew (who prefers his last name not be used) is a BFA student at Texas State University in San Marcos. He's in his mid-30s and has gone without insurance for years because it's too expensive. He has also avoided doctors for fear that he'd be diagnosed with a chronic condition, and insurance companies would "blacklist" him when he finally applied for coverage. Andrew says he no longer has to worry about that when he signs up for insurance through the exchanges this month. Andrew and his wife, a pre-K teacher, want to have a baby soon, and he says that Obamacare makes it "much more affordable for us to plan when and where we will start a family. I no longer need to worry that, god forbid, if one of us gets sick, we will be dropped from our insurance."
There are 3.5 million Texans—the state with the highest number of uninsured in the country—who Stacy, Jeffrey, and Andrew represent. More than three million who will finally be able to acquire and pay for health insurance. Thanks to Cruz and his Republican friends (including those on the Supreme Court), though, there's another million who will still be shut out because Texas isn't expanding Medicaid.
Perhaps we can work on getting all those millions to the polls in the next few elections, and the nation will be rid of Gov. Rick Perry and Ted Cruz.