WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean laid out his plan Tuesday to provide health coverage for all Americans up to age 25 and greatly expand coverage to uninsured adults.

Providing health care for the uninsured will be a major campaign issue for many of the Democrats trying to oust President Bush next year. Dean, a physician who has a record of expanding health care coverage as governor of Vermont, sees himself as the best positioned to lead on the issue.

As governor, Dean focused on small expansions of the existing health care programs so that today 96 percent of Vermont children and 91 percent of adults are covered, and his presidential campaign is based on the same principle.

``Here, in the richest, most advanced country in the world in the 21st century, it's simply wrong for a sick child to go without seeing a doctor because her parents can't afford it,'' he said in remarks prepared for delivery at Columbia University in New York City, where he took classes before going to medical school. ``We have fallen 50 years behind the social standards of what we consider to be the civilized world.''