Healthcare overhaul could limit tax breaks on benefits

Desperate to find ways to pay for a healthcare overhaul that could cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade, Congress has begun to look at limiting the tax exclusion on employer-sponsored health benefits, which cost the federal government an estimated $225 billion in foregone tax revenue in 2008. Ending the tax break entirely is out of the question politically, but the Senate Finance Committee is likely to propose limiting it in some fashion—by requiring people with the most expensive insurance, or the highest incomes, or both, to pay some taxes on their health benefits.