Health Reform for Beginners: The Employer Tax Exclusion

This is why people are bored by health care policy. This, right here. The fact that the central concept in health care reform relies on the differential tax treatment of health care benefits when provided by your employer. Even italicizing that sentence doesn't make it more interesting.

But the importance of the employer tax exclusion is simple enough: The hinge question in health care reform is "where do you get the money?" And the main -- and most controversial -- pot of money in health care reform comes from the employer tax exclusion.