Where is the momentum to repeal the medical-device excise tax? The tax is a universally reviled Obamacare revenue-raiser. First levied in 2013, it skims 2.3 percent off the sales of medical devices in the U.S. Outside liquor and tobacco, most Americans don’t suffer excise taxes, which are levied on gross sales, irrespective of a company’s profitability.
Repealing the excise tax has wide bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. Obamacare champions including Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Al Franken – both of whom voted to impose the tax when they voted for Obamacare – have manned the ramparts for repeal. Unfortunately, they cannot get a bill to the President’s desk. Further, early forecasts of catastrophe for the industry to do not appear to be playing out. A recent report from EP Vantage concludes that thirteen of the fifteen largest medical-device makers increased headcount in 2013, and two of the three who shrunk did so through selling subsidiaries.
This is not what were led to expect before the excise tax started to bite.
Read the entire column at Forbes.com.
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
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