There’s a great unknown about Senator McCain’s health plan: How many employers would drop insurance coverage for their workers because of his tax policies?

The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting has proposed that everyone buying health insurance get a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. At the same time, he would treat employer contributions toward health insurance like income, meaning workers would have to pay income, but not payroll, taxes on it.

Mr. McCain’s Democratic rival, Senator Obama, says the plan would “shred” the employer-based system that provides health insurance to about 158 million workers.

Most health analysts won’t go that far, but both liberals and conservatives say Mr. McCain’s approach would strengthen the individual and small-group insurance market. And by strengthening that market, it will pull in workers now covered through their jobs.

The workers most inclined to make that transition will be younger, healthier ones who most likely will be able to buy a policy on the individual market for less than their tax credit, said Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

McCAIN ATTENDS CHURCH, VISITS HOSPITAL

Senator McCain attended church yesterday and later visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in his hometown. The senator and his wife, Cindy, took part in the 75-minute service at the North Phoenix Baptist Church and shook hands with greeters, ushers, and church members before and after the ceremony.

Mr. McCain had remained out of sight for most of the holiday weekend and many of the hundreds of worshippers did not seem to notice that he was sitting in the church with his wife.

Shortly after the church service, Mr. and Mrs. McCain went to a Veterans Affairs hospital in central Phoenix for a 45-minute visit. He plans to fly to Denver on Monday for a town hall meeting.

McCAIN, OBAMA SPAR OVER ECONOMY

Senator Obama’s advisers criticized Senator McCain’s economic proposals yesterday, as both candidates prepared to focus on the American economy this week.

Mr. McCain’s plan is tilted toward corporations and the most affluent, neglects middle-class Americans, and lacks immediate solutions, Mr. Obama’s advisers said yesterday in a conference call with reporters held to unveil a report critical of the Arizona senator’s proposals.

“John McCain has essentially no ideas to get the economy going and create jobs in the short run,” Mr. Obama’s economic policy director, Jason Furman, said.

“Barack Obama’s words say one thing, but in reality he’s proposed raising taxes on job-creating small businesses, millions of seniors, and has even voted for higher taxes for Americans making as little as $32,000 a year,” Mr. McCain’s senior policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said in an e-mailed statement.

VETERANS GROUP LAUNCHES PRO-McCAIN AD CAMPAIGN

Senator McCain’s White House bid will boosted by an advertising campaign featuring veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan arguing that American troops must stay on and finish the job. The $1.5 million campaign, launched by the 25,000-member Vets for Freedom, implicitly criticizes Senator Obama, who has stated he wants to withdraw combat forces within 16 months of taking office.

It is also the first major intervention in the presidential race by the kind of outside group that has been highly influential in past contests.

The ads will feature veterans talking about the accomplishments they have seen since the increase in the number of American troops in Iraq, which Mr. McCain has strongly supported, began in early 2007.

“The surge worked,” says one veteran, closely followed by another who, mocking Mr. Obama’s campaign slogan, says: “Now that’s change you can believe in.”

The ads are being aired initially in New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia.

POSSIBLE VENUES FOR FUTURE OBAMA EVENTS?

Given the scheduling motif Senator Obama’s presidential campaign has adopted, the candidate can be expected to deliver a speech soon decrying American dependence on foreign oil in … Energy, Ill.

That would be followed with an elaboration on his economic policy in Bonanza, Colo.

Then, he’ll want to discuss national security matters in Protection, Kan. And as the time for his vice presidential choice nears, we’ll be watching to see whether he tips his hand with a stop on Richardson Bay, Calif. (or, for that matter, in Clinton, Iowa; Webb, N.Y.; or Nunn, Colo.).

Such conjecture is inspired, of course, by Mr. Obama’s recent appearance in Unity, N.H., to stress his newfound harmony with Senator Clinton.