Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have added a series of healthcare amendments to the Korean Free Trade Act including one to repeal the medical device excise tax.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) filed the amendment to repeal the device tax, which is set to go into place in 2013, along with amendments to repeal the employer mandate and provisions that bar states from cutting medicare eligibility, according to The Hill . All three provisions were contained in the landmark healthcare reform bill.
Hatch is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
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MassDevice Staff Website The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
A spokesperson for the committee republicans was not available for comment.
In January, Hatch sponsored the Senate bid to do away with the tax, which is slated to kick in starting in 2013. It’s a 2.3 percent tax on revenues designed to raise $20 billion over 10 years.
Hatch’s measure, with the long-winded title “A bill to repeal the job-killing tax on medical devices to ensure continued access to life-saving medical devices for patients and maintain the standing of United States as the world leader in medical device innovation,” attracted four co-sponsors: Sens. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dr. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
“A $20 billion tax hike on medical device manufacturers to fund Obamacare will cripple an important engine of opportunity, job growth and innovation, while hurting the advancement of technologies essential to improving patient care,” Hatch said in prepared remarks.
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A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
