MASON CITY, Iowa, April 6 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama told Iowans he would propose a universal health care plan to insure all Americans by 2012.
The Illinois senator said his plan would include federal subsidies, but his campaign said he hadn't yet determined whether it will include a tax increase, the Des Moines (Iowa) Register reported Friday.
Money used to treat preventable illnesses and wasted on obsolete record-keeping could go toward expanding insurance coverage, Obama told a community college gathering in Mason City.
"We shouldn't just put more money into a system that isn't efficient," Obama said.
"We can save huge amounts of money and put that money into providing basic health insurance or subsidies to purchase health insurance for those who don't have it," the newspaper quoted Obama saying at another gathering in Fort Dodge, Iowa. "We can create universal health care in this country."
