Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday that she supports allowing illegal immigrants to purchase health insurance through the Obamacare marketplace.
Clinton said that while she backs them entering the marketplace to do so, they should not be able to receive any subsidies that come along with them. The former first lady was responding to comments from her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who said as much during a campaign stop last week.
“There are two steps here. If someone can afford to pay for an insurance policy off the exchanges that were set up under the Affordable Care Act, I support that,” Clinton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“Even if they are undocumented?” Cooper asked.
“Yes. If they can afford it, they should be able to go into the marketplace and buy it,” Clinton responded. “But it is not going to apply to people who are in need of subsidies in order to afford that because the subsidies questions has to be worked out in comprehensive immigration reform. And what I do want to see is that we have more options for undocumented people to be able to get the health care they need. It’s not only the right and moral thing to do for them. It’s also important that we keep ourselves healthy and public health requires that. So I see this as a two-step process.”
Clinton’s remarks during the CNN town hall were in direct response to comments her daughter made while on the campaign trail in Salt Lake City, Utah. “She thinks it’s so important to extend the Affordable Care Act to people who are living and working here, regardless of immigration status, regardless of citizenship status,” the former first daughter said.
Not long after the Democratic front-runner’s remarks on CNN, Donald Trump fired off a tweet in response and argued that Clinton should worry more about veterans than illegal immigrants.
