Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared her stance on a controversial insurance issue during the party’s televised debate Tuesday.
Speaking on the future of health insurance in the US, Clinton told listeners that she supported states such as California that have extended health benefits to unauthorized immigrant minors. She also backed a proposition to allow adults who are living in the country illegally to buy insurance coverage through state and federal exchanges.
“First of all, I want to make sure every child gets healthcare…and I want to support states that are expanding healthcare and including undocumented children and others,” Clinton said. “I want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able to buy into the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.”
Other Democrats, including Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, joined Clinton in supporting some form of health insurance extension to unauthorized immigrants. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running further to the left of mainstream candidates, went further – he believes everyone should have access to healthcare regardless of immigration status.
Clinton stuck to a more conservative position, differing from Sanders and O’Malley by saying she did not want to provide government subsidies to unauthorized immigrants.
“It would be very difficult to administer,” she said. “It needs to be part of a comprehensive immigration reform, when we finally do get to it.”
Currently, people living in the US illegally are barred from purchasing health insurance under the ACA. As such, they are making up an increasing share of those who remain without coverage – about 13% of the country’s uninsured are Mexican immigrants, a 2013 study from UCLA, UC-Berkeley and the Mexican government found.
The statements come just weeks after Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez proposed a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to take advantage of healthcare reform.
“As a nation, we all benefit when we spread the risk, require younger, healthier workers to join our exchanges with the rest of us, reduce the costs of compensating hospitals for caring for the uninsured, and decrease the number of uninsured who live and work here,” Gutierrez said.
Republican lawmakers are not viewing the proposal favorably, however. Party leaders expressed strong concern at the passage of the ACA that undocumented workers would receive coverage under the law, and the Obama administration went to great lengths to ensure unauthorized immigrants were not included in the bill.
Gutierrez acknowledged the low likelihood of passage for the proposed legislation.
“The current hysteria on the campaign trail makes action by these Republicans or any Republicans unlikely,” he said. “Even though I still believe we have the votes – like we did for the last several years – to pass immigration reform in the House I don’t think the Speaker, even as a lame duck, will allow a vote.”
