Senator John Sidney McCain has highlighted several elements of his health care plan. McCain, the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in the upcoming 2008 election, has said that there is a need for more competition between insurers for the insured's money.

Also, the Arizona senator said that he would give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit and $2,500 to individuals to purchase cheaper, more suitable insurance on the open market, even across state lines. The subsequent competition would drive the prices lower and encourage improvements in the insurance system, McCain thinks.

The remarks were made during a health care speech in Tampa. John McCain said that he would work with states to design a new health care plan. He "won't create another entitlement program that Washington will let get out of control," nor would he "saddle states with another unfunded mandate," McCain said at the Tampa cancer research hospital.

"Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs. It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge," Senator McCain said.

Another essential element of McCain's plan is the proposed set up of a nonprofit Guaranteed Access Plan which is to provide coverage to individuals who are denied it from private insurers due to pre-existing conditions. The plan would be set up by state governments.

He also ran an ad in Iowa. The 60-second clip, titled "Health Care Action," makes the case that McCain's market-oriented strategy will make health care cheaper and more available.

Senator McCain, 71, lost the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush after contested battles in several states. Due to his sensitivity to the detention and interrogation of detainees, as a former POW in Vietnam, he has introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, limiting military interrogations to the techniques found in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogation.