COLUMBIA, S.C. — Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said he believes people living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed to obtain government healthcare.

"That needs to be available to everyone, there needs to be a way for people of any immigration status to participate," said Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who was speaking at the "We Decide" forum hosted by Planned Parenthood's political arm on Saturday.

Buttigieg supports extending government healthcare to people who want to buy into it, while still keeping private health insurers in the game. The plan would be like Medicare, but more expansive because it would cover more healthcare services than the current Medicare system, which mostly covers adults 65 and older. His approach, he said, would offer a "glide path to universal healthcare."

Buttigieg's position on how to cover the remaining uninsured in the U.S. stands in contrast to other rivals for the Democratic nomination that support the Medicare for All Act, including its main backer Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as well as Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Sanders has said that his bill would cover people who were living in the U.S. illegally. But his bill, as well as the House version of the legislation, leaves the decision over whether nonresidents can qualify for healthcare coverage in the hands of the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. This arrangement means a decision about whether to cover people residing in the U.S. illegally can be easily reversed or extended depending on which party controls the White House.