Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, said yesterday that Sen. John McCain's proposed health care plan threatens the employer-based health benefits of 4.5 million Virginians.

A spokeswoman for McCain, the Republican candidate for president, said the charge is "a bald-faced lie."

Edwards, a senior fellow at the liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said as many as 580,000 people in the state could lose their health coverage. Further, she said, the McCain health plan would increase taxes on middle-class families.

She spoke at a news conference at the state Capitol organized by six labor unions.

Because the Center for American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan committee, Edwards could not advocate for Democrat Barack Obama's health-care plan, although she referred questioners to Obama's Web site. Members of the Communications Workers Union and the Service Employees International Union, who packed a room in the Capitol, wore Obama T-shirts.

Edwards' husband briefly challenged Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Edwards dropped out before it was discovered that he was having an affair while his wife was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Elizabeth Edwards said neither she nor McCain would be able to get health coverage under the McCain plan because of existing health problems. McCain has had skin cancer.

The McCain plan would tax the health-care benefits of workers and create a refundable health insurance tax credit of $5,000 for families and $2,500 for individuals. He says this would give families greater, more affordable choice.

When Obama talks about the McCain plan, he omits the tax credit provision, the McCain campaign said.

But Edwards said the tax rebate would not be enough to pay for higher premiums as health-care costs rise. She said health insurers would offer insurance only to those who are healthy. She acknowledged that the 580,000 figure of those losing insurance is an estimate.

"I know John McCain believes in the free market, and I believe in the free market when we are talking about refrigerators, but not when we are talking about health care," she said.

Obama has proposed a plan that would require mandatory coverage for children and encourage universal coverage by requiring employers to share costs of insuring workers.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.