From a lengthy article in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
A U.S. House bill that would repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices has passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee by a 23-11 vote.
The tax, which is scheduled to go into effect in January, would be placed on medical devices ranging from wheelchairs to pacemakers to stents to surgical gloves that are not marketed directly to consumers.
Medical device manufacturers, including the Cook group of companies in Bloomington, have been fighting to get the tax repealed, saying it will shift jobs overseas and reduce innovation.
The bill is scheduled to go before the full House next week, where it is expected to pass, according to a Cook news release. The Senate has not acted on the matter.
The tax is part of the Affordable Care Act package of health care reforms heralded by the Obama administration and is designed to pay a portion of the cost of universal health insurance coverage the law will require. It is expected that if the law is unchanged, it will provide health insurance to as many as 33 million currently uninsured Americans. Republicans have promised to repeal or dramatically change the law if they take control in Washington following the November election.
Cook’s concern is limited to the device tax. “This repeal is vital to patients and their caregivers who want their critical-care devices manufactured in the U.S.,” said Cook Group President Steve Ferguson in the Cook release. “The threat of this imminent tax has already led companies to move existing manufacturing offshore and plan for future growth outside the U.S.”
...
The House has scheduled a vote on the bill for next Thursday. Then it will be in the hands of the Senate, Ferguson said.
“The Senate hasn’t really dealt with very much at all ... It’s going to be interesting — we’re hoping we can get enough Senate interest in this to get them to take action on it.”
See the full story here:
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/06/03/business.effort-in-the-works-to-repeal-excise-tax-on-medical-devices.sto
