McCain hits Obama on healthcare

Senator John McCain, hurt during the presidential campaign by his differences with President Obama on healthcare, is trying to turn the tables.

McCain today criticized Obama's insistence on a public insurance option to compete directly with private insurers.

“State run plans have driven the private insurers out…it ends up being more and in some cases prohibitively expensive,” the former GOP presidential nominee said on Fox News Channel.

McCain also pointed out that Obama is at least open to considering a tax on employer-paid healthcare benefits to pay for expanding access -- an idea that the president eviscerated McCain about during the campaign.

“The important thing is we wanted to give American families a $5,000 refundable tax credit which would have more than covered their healthcare insurance needs,” McCain said. "He spent tens of millions of dollars attacking me on that.”

“Life isn’t fair, elections have consequences and its interesting how there’s been numerous shifts on the president's positions on a number of issues since the election,” he added.