CNN takes a closer look at the health care proposals of both candidates (I strongly recommend you to read the article in its entirety):

Both presidential candidates want to turn employer-sponsored health insurance on its head. A principal goal: to make sure more Americans get coverage.

But in helping the 45 million uninsured, both Republican nominee John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama could prompt radical changes in on-the-job insurance, which currently covers 164 million people.

“Both McCain’s and Obama’s plans would move coverage in ways that changes the nature of the employer-sponsored system,” said James Klein, head of the American Benefits Council, which represents larger employers.

McCain and Obama take very different paths to what they say is the same endpoint - reforming health care.

As part of McCain’s plan, employees would lose the tax exemption for company-sponsored health insurance. Instead, taxpayers would get a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for single filers, or $5,000 for families, to cover the costs of insurance bought on the job or on their own in the individual market.

By doing this, McCain would level the playing field between those who get insurance on the job, where benefits aren’t taxed, and those who buy it their own, where it is subject to tax. The tax credit would let more of the uninsured afford coverage.

Obama, on the other hand, is promising to push employers to cover more Americans as part of his health care proposal. He would require larger companies provide insurance to employees or contribute toward the cost of a national plan, while giving small businesses a tax credit to entice them to offer coverage to their workers.

The plans of both candidates raise the concerns of employers and experts, who say the proposals could wind up undermining the nation’s employer-based health insurance system.

My the glass is half full take: both would cover quite some of those who are currently uninsured and, on average, make health care more affortable.

My the glass is half empty take: both have their very considerable weaknesses.