WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Having made healthcare a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards formally unveiled Monday a detailed plan that calls for universal healthcare by 2012.

Posted on his website -- www.johnedwards.com -- the plan would require all businesses to provide their employees with health insurance and all Americans to have it.

"We have to stop using words like 'access to health care' when we know with certainty those words mean something less than universal care," Edwards said in a statement. "We need a truly universal solution, and we need it now."

On Sunday Edwards said he would raise taxes to pay for the plan.

"Yes, we'll have to raise taxes," Edwards said on NBC's "Meet the Press. "The only way you can pay for a health care plan that costs anywhere from $90 to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source."