Sanders proposes tax hike to pay for health care

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Vowing to achieve universal health care, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders released a sweeping proposal hours before Sunday's Democratic presidential debate to create a new single-payer health care system in the United States paid for by a variety of higher taxes.

Sanders' "Medicare for all" plan was poised to play a starring role in the final Democratic debate before the leadoff Iowa caucuses and came as rival Hillary Clinton has ramped up her critique of Sanders' health care plans.

Clinton has pressed Sanders for details on whether middle-class families would face a higher tax burden under his plan, which she has warn would undermine President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul.

Her campaign did not immediately comment on his proposal, which was released at little more than two hours before the debate.

Sanders' campaign said his system would provide health care coverage to all Americans, eliminate co-pays and deductibles, and bring health care spending under control.

"Universal health care is an idea that has been supported in the United States by Democratic presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman," Sanders said in a statement. "It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege."

His campaign said the plan would cost $1.38 trillion a year, but would save $6 trillion over the next decade compared to the current health care system.