McCain’s proposal strives to make health coverage less dependent on the workplace, encourage personal responsibility and preserve choice of coverage. It would provide a large tax subsidy — a $5,000 refundable tax credit with which families could buy coverage. (Individuals would get $2,500.) And it would end the employer’s deduction for health benefits and the exclusion of employees’ health-care contributions from taxable income. [Emphasis added.] Critics of the McCain proposal say that the loss of the tax break would prompt companies to drop their coverage. And low-risk workers would have less incentive to stay in their employer’s plan. Furthermore, coverage for a family of four averages $12,000 a year, considerably more money than the $5,000 tax credit would provide.