ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Barack Obama's White House campaign Monday accused John McCain of plotting to impose savage cuts on government-run health care programs that insure the elderly and the poor.

It was the latest attack from the Democrat's camp over an emotive issue that is taking on new urgency at a time when many Americans fear losing their jobs and thus the health care coverage that comes from their employers.

The Obama campaign seized on a Wall Street Journal report that cited independent analysts as estimating the Republican's policies would cut 1.3 trillion dollars over 10 years from Medicare and Medicaid.

'This plan would be a disaster. It would dramatically reduce the quality of health care for older Americans and the poorest and sickest of Americans,' said Bob Graham, a former Florida senator and ex-governor, on a media call.

'This also is a plan which would undercut substantially the fundamental employer-based health care system on which most Americans rely today,' he said.

Obama promises a costly new government-run health care scheme to cover most of the 46 million Americans who now have no insurance. McCain is offering a tax credit of up to 5,000 dollars for families to buy private coverage.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior economic adviser, told the Wall Street Journal that the tax credits would be paid for in part with savings from Medicare, which insurers seniors, and Medicaid, which covers the poor.

Medicare spending alone for the fiscal year ended last month is estimated at 457.5 billion dollars, representing a huge and growing burden on strained government finances.

A new Marist poll Monday suggested 51 percent of registered voters believe Obama is the better candidate to tackle health care, against 38 percent who backed McCain on the issue.

And despite the financial crisis buffeting the US economy, 78 percent said they wanted the next president to address the health care crisis even if it means greater government debt.

Obama hammered the health care theme at weekend rallies, accusing his Republican opponent of planning a Wall Street-style deregulation that would deprive 20 million more Americans of life-saving insurance.

'The question isn't how we can afford to focus on health care -- but how we can afford not to,' the Illinois senator said Sunday in Asheville, North Carolina.

In a statement Sunday, Holtz-Eakin said Obama's health care offensive at his rallies and in a slew of advertisements was 'cynical and deceitful' with no basis in fact.

But Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey said McCain's plans showed he was 'out of touch' as middle-class Americans struggle to make ends meet.

'You have to wonder about what John McCain and his running mate (Sarah Palin), what their priorities are for America,' he said on the call.

'Privatizing Social Security, gutting Medicare, deregulating health care is not putting your country first, it's putting a radical, misguided, reckless ideology ahead of the interests of your country.'

McCain denies he plans to 'privatize' Social Security retirement benefits, but would give workers the choice of diverting their accounts from government control into safer investment vehicles such as bonds.