Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife confirmed in an interview with The New York Times that her husband gets his health care coverage from Goldman Sachs, where she has worked for eight years as a managing director in the Houston division.
“Ted is on my health care plan,” Heidi Cruz told the newspaper in a story published Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the senator confirmed Cruz’s $20,000 coverage plan with the paper. “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,” Catherine Frazier said.
According to a 2013 Kaiser study, the average for a employer-provided family coverage plan is $16,351. A 2009 New York Times report shows that Goldman Sachs’ plans for executives and managing directors are worth double the average plan–more than $40,000 annually in premiums for each family.
The senator who has become the most vocal crusader against Obamacare has dodged questions about his own health coverage even after driving the two-week government shutdown earlier this month.
Near the end of Cruz’s 21-hour faux filibuster leading into the shutdown, Sen. Dick Durbin asked the Texas senator where he gets his coverage from. “Will the senator from Texas for the record tell us now–and those who watched this debate–whether he is protected and his family’s protected?” Durbin asked.
“I’m happy to tell you now I am eligible for it and I am not currently covered under it,” Cruz replied, shifting to an earlier example of an uninsured diabetic woman.
Heidi Cruz also said that she was out of town for work on the night her husband occupied the Senate floor. The senator’s chief of staff called her that evening and asked her if she had any suggestions for a bedtime story he could recite to their two daughters from the Senate floor. She responded, “Green Eggs and Ham,” and so her husband read the Dr. Seuss book.
“When Americans tried it, they discovered they did not like green eggs and ham and they did not like Obamacare either,” Cruz told his fellow senators while reading from the famous tale. “They did not like Obamacare in a box, with a fox, in a house or with a mouse. It is not working.” (Actually, the book’s narrator finally tries green eggs and ham and likes it.)
“Ted is very much a visionary,” said Heidi Cruz, whose friends describe her as “less ideological” than her husband. “He is very strategic, and he’s very practical, and he does what needs to be done, not what everybody wants him to do.”
Senator Cruz’s high profile has raised speculation that he’s planning a 2016 White House run. When asked if she could envision herself as first lady, the senator’s wife laughed.
“Um, I don’t think I should answer that,” she said.
Clare Kim