"You simply choose the insurance provider that suits you best," John McCain says of his proposal.

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TAMPA, Fla. — John McCain wants to change how people get their health insurance, shifting away from job-based coverage to an open market where people can choose from competing policies.

The Arizona Republican said Tuesday that he would offer families a $5,000 tax credit to help buy insurance policies. Everyone would get the credit, whether he or she keeps a policy through an employer or shops for a new one.

"You simply choose the insurance provider that suits you best," McCain said in a speech at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.

"The health plan you chose would be as good as any that an employer could choose for you. It would be yours and your family's health care plan, and yours to keep," he said.

Advisers called the speech a major policy address, though McCain has talked about the same ideas for several months.

Still missing: the total cost of the plan and an estimate of how many people it would help. There are more than 40 million people in the United States who don't have health insurance. An adviser said that specifics will come later.

Under McCain's plan, anyone could get the credit, and those who like their company health- care plans could choose to stay in them. The credit would be available as a rebate to people at lower income levels who have no tax liability.

To pay for the tax credit, McCain would eliminate the tax exemption for people whose employers pay a portion of their coverage. Companies that provide coverage to workers still would get tax breaks. McCain would also cut costs by limiting health-care lawsuits.

The goal is to move the health-care industry away from job-based coverage toward competition among health insurance companies on the open market.

Critics of McCain's approach say it could leave sicker or older people without coverage as younger, healthier workers leave employer-based plans for cheaper ones; McCain's campaign says there would be a safety net to protect high-risk people.

Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton said that under McCain's plan, millions of Americans would lose their health-care coverage through their jobs.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama's campaign also dismissed McCain's plan, with a campaign spokesman saying: "Instead of taking on the big health insurance companies and requiring them to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions, Senator McCain wants to make it easier for them to reject your coverage, drop it, or jack up the price you pay."

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