By dropping his healthcare plan so close to the debate, Sanders' campaign all but guarantees he will spar with Clinton on the topic on Sunday night. | Getty Sanders, Clinton clash over his new 'Medicare for All' plan

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Bernie Sanders released the details of his “Medicare for all” single-payer health care plan just two hours before the Democratic debate here on Sunday night, escalating the bitter wrangling over health care with Hillary Clinton.

“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 as he unveiled the plan. “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."


Clinton's campaign swiftly issued a critical statement, questioning Sanders' numbers and details, and Clinton during the debate hit him for switching up the details after she highlighted flaws in his earlier blueprints, particulary her contention that he left too much of it up to the states -- and their Republican governors.

But her main health care point during the debate itself was that Democrats should defend and improve Obamacare-- not "tear it up and start over" in a divisive debate over single payer.

"Here's what i believe," she said. "The Democratic Party and the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Health Care Act passed. We finally have a path to universal health care. We have accomplished so much already, I do not to want see the Republicans repeal it and I don't to want see us start over again with a contentious debate."

Sanders denied he'd tear down Obamacare, noting that he had a role in drafting it and he voted for it. But he said he wants to build on it, and bring down the cost of health care which is still leaving the newly insured with big expenses. He also pointed out that nearly six years after Obamacare was enacted, around 29 million people are still uninsured.

He said the obstacles were the "campaign finance system that is corrupt," as well as insurers and the pharmaceutical industry "pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign contributions and lobbying."

The Sanders' proposal released before the debate includes a series of tax increases, though the Vermont senator's campaign contends that it would save families and employers money once they transition to the government-financed system and no longer have to pay insurance premiums.

His plan calls for a federally- managed program paid for by a new 6.2 percent income-based health care tax paid for by employers, a new 2.2 percent income-based tax paid for by households, and a progressive tax scheme with a top rate of 52 percent for those earning over $10 million.

It also includes an estate tax which the campaign said would affect the wealthiest 0.3 percent of Americans. It also includes a proposal to tax capital gains the same as work income.

In a memo, Sanders’ campaign says it estimates that the plan would cost $1.38 trillion per year.

It will take health care economists some time to crunch his new numbers. But he's been attacked in the past for making overly optimistic estimates about how much savings his health plan could wring from the system to close spending gaps.

Clinton's campaign quickly fired off a statement criticizing Sanders for releasing the plan two hours before the debate and accusing the Vermont senator of shifting on core issues. Her campaign in particular faulted his earlier plans for allowing states to potentially undermine federal protections.

“Sen. Sanders has been changing a lot of positions in the last 24 hours because when his plans and record come under scrutiny, their very real flaws get exposed," campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in the statement. "After digging in his heels for weeks, he backpedaled on his vote to give sweeping immunity to gun manufacturers and dealers. And after weeks of denying the legitimacy of the questions Hillary Clinton raised about flaws in the health care legislation he’s introduced 9 times over 20 years, he proposed a new plan two hours before the debate."

Sanders bristled at the criticism of his proposal's cost and possible burden on the middle class. "I'm disappointed that Secretary Clinton's campaign has made this criticism. It's a Republican criticism. Secretary Clinton does know a lot about health care, and she understands, I believe, that a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program will substantially lower the cost of health care for middle class families.

Many liberal Democrats have long championed a single-payer health plan, also known as Medicare for all. But even many of its advocates backed the Affordable Care Act as a more politically realistic strategy for expanding health coverage — and even that has been a nonstop political struggle.

Early versions of the health care bill in Congress in 2009 did include a scaled-back substitute for single payer, known as the public option, but it was jettisoned after centrist Democrats and insurers objected. Clinton noted that history during the debate Sunday night.

Sanders has fought back against the Clinton camp including Chelsea Clinton’s criticisms of his proposal as likely to “dismantle” the ACA, Medicare, and private insurance.

Some Sanders allies have noted Clinton's own disagreements with President Barack Obama over health policy in their 2008 primary fight, but Clinton's team has embraced the ACA and had put considerable pressure on Sanders to release his plan, turning health care into a central point of contention between the two candidates.