Repealing the medical device tax is the most critical issue to maintaining a “climate of innovation,” Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) CEO J. Raymond Elliott wrote in a July 4th editorial for Star Tribune newspaper.
“The medical device tax directly undermines the Obama administration’s competitiveness agenda. It will remove an estimated $20 billion from the private sector through 2019, discouraging job creation, investment and economic growth. Moreover, the tax does nothing to advance the administration’s ultimate aim of reducing health care costs,” Elliott wrote. “More than any other policy, repealing the medical device tax would help maintain a climate of innovation within our sector.”
Elliott, who is retiring from BSX at the end of the year, has been an outspoken critic of the 2.3 percent excise tax which was contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a way to pay for the health care overhaul.
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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.
In February, Elliott lent his support to repeal efforts underway by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), calling the $20 billion tax on medical devices a threat to “jobs in Massachusetts and patient access to life-saving technology,” according to a prepared statement.
“Repealing this onerous tax would help the US maintain global leadership in the development, manufacturing and export of medical technology,” Elliott wrote.
Brown is one of several GOP legislators that have introduced bills aimed at repealing the device tax.
Last week, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) slapped an amendment to repeal the device tax onto the Korean Free Trade Act as it was in the Senate Finance Committee.
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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.
Hatch is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
In January Hatch sponsored the Senate bid to do away with the tax, which is slated to kick in starting in 2013.
Click here to read Elliott’s op-ed.
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.
