WASHINGTON, March 24-- U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz, the top foe of Obamacare, said Tuesday he will sign up for health insurance through Obamacare, one day after he pledged to repeal Obamacare in his announcement for White House bid.
Cruz previously got insured via his wife's employer Goldman Sachs. However, after his wife announced she is taking an unpaid leave to assist Cruz in presidential campaign, Cruz said he will head to HealthCare.gov, a health insurance exchange website run by the federal government, to sign up for a plan.
"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 told the U.S. TV network CNN on Tuesday.
In his speech on Monday, Cruz said he would repeal "every word of Obamacare" after winning the 2016 presidential election.
"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," he said.
As a leader of the Tea Party movement, Cruz is popular among conservative constituencies for not shying away from challenging both U.S. President Barack Obama and his fellow Republicans in contested immigration and medicare policies.
However, with more than a dozen predominant Republicans expressing interest in the 2016 presidential bid, analysts believe Cruz has a long way to go in winning broader support in the Republican base. According to a recent CNN/ORC poll, only 4 percent of Republicans and independents who lean to the Republican party would support Cruz in the Republican primary.
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