Hillary Clinton was asked to explain the drastic shift in her health care policy with regards to illegal immigrants Sunday on This Week, as she now supports them being allowed to buy into health care exchanges but wouldn't cover them in her first campaign.
"In the past, you've said that undocumented immigrants would not be covered by your health care proposal," host George Stephanopoulos said. "Here's an exchange we had in 2007."
Stephanopoulos then rolled tape of Clinton saying on the same show during her first, failed campaign for the presidency that no illegal immigrants would be covered under her health care plan.
"Now you say that undocumented immigrants should be able to buy into the exchanges, so why the shift?" he asked.
"Because, number one, the kind of plan that was passed in the Affordable Care Act gives you a market-based way of getting into the insurance market," Clinton said. "So if you can afford to buy a policy, you can. You don't get, however, any of the subsidies that American citizens get."
"Martin O'Malley says they should. Why not?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"Well, I disagree with him," she said. "I think part of comprehensive immigration reform should be looking at all of these issues, but as things stand right now, under the Affordable Care Act, if you have the money, and you are undocumented, you can buy into it but without the subsidies. That's why it's important we continue to support community health centers. We continue to support our hospitals, because those are often the places that undocumented people and poor people go."
Stephanopoulos reminded viewers at the start of the interview that he once worked for her husband Bill Clinton in the White House and made donations to the Clinton Foundation, a story first uncovered by the Free Beacon.