He gets his coverage from his wife’s Goldman insurance policy, which, like all employer-sponsored insurance, is given a juicy tax break. His office does not seem to grasp this elementary fact:

“Ted is on my health care plan,” said Mrs. Cruz, who has worked in Goldman’s investment management division for eight years. Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the senator, confirmed the coverage, which Goldman said was worth at least $20,000 a year. “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,” she said.

No cost to the taxpayer? Nuh-huh:

In fact, the Senator and Mrs. Cruz are probably* getting a bigger tax break than the cost of coverage of a typical, non-elderly Medicaid beneficiary, or even two … (* I don’t know the Cruz’s income with certainty. I think it’s safe to assume it puts them in one of the higher marginal tax rate brackets. A Senator’s salary is $174,000. Ms. Cruz is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.)

Having put the knife in, Austin Frakt wiggles it a bit. Read the whole thing.

Update from a reader:

Ted Cruz released his tax returns during his Senate primary campaign. In 2010, his wife made $360,290 working for Goldman Sachs. Ted made well over $1 million as a partner in his Houston law firm.

So he’s almost certainly costing the taxpayers more than a typical Medicaid beneficiary. Worth knowing.

(Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)