http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...061402769.html
"Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is expected to propose a new tax on the health benefits that millions of Americans currently receive tax-free through employers.
Economists say taxing employer-sponsored benefits would help trim runaway health costs and force society to broadly share the burdens of reform. The idea also has bipartisan appeal. Former president George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, championed a form of the tax; so did Obama advisers Jason Furman and Ezekiel Emanuel before they joined the administration"
It didn't happen because it would have kept the bill from passing but those like Brian who think it wont are sadly mistaken. The healthcare bill is funded via accounting tricks and pie in the sky assumptions. It will be woefully underfunded. And when that happens you can expect this to be revisited.