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The reaction on social media to the story the Trudeau government is considering making workplace health and dental coverage a taxable benefit was volcanic.

As Postmedia revealed Saturday, the department of Finance is reviewing the measure, which costs the government $2.9 billion in forgone revenue and lowers the tax bills of 13.5 million Canadians.

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If it does prove to be a flagrant tax grab, the Liberals may have to pry health plans from the cold, dead hands of rebellious taxpayers.

But let’s credit the Grits with more political savvy than that.

Francois-Philippe Champagne, the parliamentary secretary for finance minister Bill Morneau, told the House of Commons that Finance is reviewing tax credits to “ensure tax fairness and to simplify the tax code.

“We are not looking at any measure in isolation and no decisions have been made,” he said.

The best guess is that the government is set to adopt the recommendations of the advisory panel on health care innovation, which reported without fanfare in July last year. The blue ribbon panel, chaired by former University of Toronto president David Naylor, suggested changing the tax treatment of employer-provided health insurance, in exchange for broadening tax-based support for the purchase of private health insurance by individuals.