ALBUQUERQUE — Usually, Sen. Barack Obama just answers the questions that audience members ask him at town hall meetings around the country.

But when Albuquerque resident Carrie Hummel told him during an event here Monday that she hasn't been to a doctor in 10 years, he gently scolded her.

"That's not good," he said during a stop at the headquarters of the Flying Star Cafe near downtown, where he spoke to about 35 women, all employees of the local chain.

Even though Hummel works two jobs, saves where she can and has her boyfriend ride a bike to use less gas, she cannot afford the health insurance her employer offers.

Hummel, 28, is just the person Obama say he wants to help.

"Health care puts such a burden on families," he said after Hummel asked what he would do to help someone like her. "Even if you've got health insurance, you've seen your co-pays and deductibles and premiums keep going up. And if you don't have health care, you feel like you are always one illness or one accident way from bankruptcy," Obama said.

"We've got to reverse that."

Obama, in New Mexico on Monday and in Nevada today, is focusing this campaign trip on the economy and on women's issues. He took questions from five women.

He spoke for about an hour to the group inside a warehouse, surrounded by a 7-foot-high coffee roaster and a just-as-large coffee grinder.

Obama's plan calls for lowering health care premiums by $2,500 per family per year for those who have insurance and setting up a large, federal-employee-type pool of insurance for those who don't.

Under his proposal, he said, "there will not be a single person in America that wants health insurance that will not be able to get it." For those who cannot afford it, there will be subsidies, he said.

Obama also addressed what he would do to help working women.

"As the son of a single mom, I also don't accept that America makes women choose between their children and their career. That's one of the biggest burdens that women have to carry," he said.

"It's not acceptable that women are denied jobs or promotions because they have children at home. It's not acceptable that 40 percent of working women don't have a single paid sick day. That's wrong for working parents, that's wrong for America's children and that's not who we are as a country," the Illinois senator and Democratic nominee said.

If elected president in November, Obama says he would expand tax credits for child care, double the funding for after-school programs and expand the Family and Medical Leave Act.

"I have a clear plan to expand sick leave and paid leave and John McCain doesn't, and that's a real difference," he said.

Obama, who has been able to draw crowds around the country of thousands, seemed focused on getting votes one at a time during the intimate, invited-only event. His voice at times was absorbed by the giant bags of coffee beans from countries including Guatemala and Brazil, which were stacked on shelves almost halfway to the ceiling.

And if Obama aimed to pick up key supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton during the trip, he scored big. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, previously the state's most-high-profile Clinton supporter, introduced him.

"As president, Barack Obama has promised to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act and has encouraged every state to adopt a paid leave system," she said. "And more importantly than that, he has encouraged every state to adopt high-quality after-school programs for our children."

Denish said she believes those who rooted for Clinton will now vote for Obama, despite talk that some women are so against him they'd vote for McCain.

"In the end, I believe that 95 percent of women who supported Hillary Clinton will understand what is important is having someone who agrees with us on the issues in the White House," she said after the event.

New Mexico, narrowly won by George W. Bush in the last two presidential elections, is seen as a swing state. Obama was last here on Memorial Day.

Gov. Bill Richardson, who endorsed Obama, wasn't at Monday's event. His office said he was in state but didn't have any public events scheduled. First Lady Barbara Richardson was among the women at the forum.

While many in the audience said they were swayed by Obama's performance, not everyone turned into a supporter.

Undecided voter Eirinn Sanchez said she's still going to think a little more about who she will be voting for in November.

The Flying Star counter worker generally liked what Obama had to say but said, "It takes a lot more than a small conversation or even several small conversations to make a decision like this.

"Action is more important than words on decisions like this," she said.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.