FACTBOX: McCain and Obama on health care and retirement

(Reuters) - The presidential election in November looks increasingly like a face-off between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Obama, an Illinois senator, is less than 100 delegates shy of capturing the Democratic nomination after his showing in the latest primary elections, and McCain, an Arizona senator, is the presumptive Republican nominee.

Health care has ranked among the top issues with U.S. voters in this election cycle, and the Social Security retirement program is a perennial issue for the country's influential elderly population.

Both Obama and McCain have offered health care and retirement proposals. Here is a summary of their positions.

HEALTH CARE

McCain would end tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance and instead provide a refundable tax credit of $2,500 per person, or $5,000 for families, to help people buy health policies. He would promote competition by allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and he would make it tougher to sue doctors in some cases.

Obama has proposed a national insurance program to allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health care similar to that available to federal employees, funded by a tax on employers who don't provide coverage. Individuals would not lose coverage when they switch jobs.

He would lower premiums through a program that would reduce the exposure of employer health plans to costs of a catastrophic illness. Drug costs would be lowered by allowing patients to buy drugs from abroad and letting the government negotiate for lower prices.

SOCIAL SECURITY