Click here to watch "Worried Sick."

As John McCain's campaign seeks to shift the presidential race away from pocketbook issues, Barack Obama is keeping the focus on the kitchen table. The Illinois senator's camp is striking on health care, hitting the topic repeatedly on the campaign trail and charging in several new TV spots that McCain's plan would cost working families more and amount to the largest tax increase ever for many of them.

Obama began the onslaught last week with "Prescription" (subscription), which portrays McCain's explanation of his plan as a half-truth. "John McCain talks about a $5,000 tax credit for health care," but "he's not telling you" the whole story, the announcer says. The Arizona senator's plan calls for employees to "pay income tax on your health insurance benefits, taxing health benefits for the first time ever." What's worse, the ad says, the revenue from those taxes "goes straight to the insurance companies." The announcer concludes that McCain's plan resorts to "taxing health care instead of fixing it." (PolitiFact, a joint project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, scores the ad as "barely true" for its claim that McCain's plan would leave people on their own, noting that "there's ample evidence to show that the plan would be a wash for most workers.")

"One Word" (subscription) conveys a nearly identical message, labeling the McCain health care plan "a multitrillion-dollar tax hike, the largest middle-class tax increase in history." The announcer goes on to warn viewers that a McCain administration "could cost your family thousands" in additional health care costs.

Meanwhile, in "Coin" (subscription), Obama claims that while he would increase coverage for routine treatments, McCain would "deregulate the insurance giants, letting them bypass patient protections in your state." Furthermore, whereas Obama would require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, "McCain would let them continue to do as they please." Playing on the image of a flipped coin, the announcer asks, "Isn't your health care too important to be left to chance?"

Obama is also getting an assist from the Service Employees International Union, a labor group that has endorsed him and run several ads promoting his candidacy.

"Worried Sick" (subscription) features two women walking through the grocery store, discussing the difficulties one of them is facing after her husband has undergone surgery. "I don’t know how we’re going to pay all the bills," she frets, adding: "We’ve got insurance, but it doesn’t seem to cover much." If voters are "worried sick about health care costs" now, an announcer interjects, "John McCain's plan won’t help."

SEIU is running the ad in battleground states Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.