Medical Innovation in Focus for Congress

American Legislator ^ | 4-27-15 | Sean Riley

[ThethoughtsofGreg]

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, April 23, held a subcommittee hearing on the impact of the medical device tax on jobs, innovation and patients. Since January 2013, manufacturers and importers of medical devices have faced a 2.3 percent excise tax to offset costs of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). During the hearing, Health Care Subcommittee Chairman Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) shared an example from his state as to the effects of the tax:

"I’ve had the opportunity to visit a lot of medical device companies, and I plead with them to show me their books. Sometimes they do, and what’s happened is two things. One, companies in Ohio have been forced, because of the bottom line, to lay people off…The second thing that is happening is research is being cut back. And what they tell me is, ‘Rob, what we are going to do next year is change our budget for research because our bottom line isn’t as good because of this tax on our revenue, and we don’t want to lay people off, so we’re going to try not to. The only way to do that is to cut back on our research."

These sentiments echo the view of Tom Fogarty, recent recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his contributions to minimally invasive medical devices. “There is no way I could have had the same impact if the tax on medical devices was in place when I got started over 50 years ago,” Fogarty says. “Simply put, the medical device tax is destroying job creation and innovation, and as a result, patient care is suffering.”

[Paine in the Neck]

This medical device tax is about the stupidest thing ever...

...well, next to taxing jobs directly.

[lowbridge]

Bump

[Pollster1]

This medical device tax is about the stupidest thing ever...

What is stupid about taxing medical devices in order to lower the cost of medical devices? Those are the stated purposes of this medical device tax and of Obamacare. What could go wrong?