ObamaCare’s Heart Attack Tax Kills Jobs

Democrats’ Heart Attack Tax on Small Businesses Developing Life-Saving Technologies Is Already Killing Jobs and Sending Them Overseas 

• The House will vote today on repealing the Democrats’ heart attack tax created under ObamaCare, a tax on medical devices such as cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers. The heart attack tax is already destroying jobs and sending them overseas, and it will do more damage unless it is repealed.
• The heart attack tax could also be disastrous for life-saving medical innovations by leveling a tax larger than the industry’s entire research and development budget.
• House Democrats are prepared to again defend ObamaCare no matter the cost to job creators or the quality of healthcare.

The House will vote today on repealing the Democrats’ heart attack tax created under ObamaCare, a tax on medical devices such as cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers. The heart attack tax is already destroying jobs and sending them overseas, and it will do more damage unless it is repealed:

NEW STUDY: AT LEAST 14,500 JOBS OR AS MANY AS 47,000 JOBS COULD BE DESTROYED BY OBAMACARE’S HEART ATTACK TAX: (Michael Ramlet, Robert Book and Han Zhong, “The Economic Impact of the Medical Device Tax,” American Action Forum, 6/4/2012) 

13,303 SMALL- TO MEDIUM-SIZE MEDICAL DEVICE FIRMS IN U.S., OR 91% OF ALL MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANIES COULD BE AFFECTED: (Michael Ramlet, Robert Book and Han Zhong, “The Economic Impact of the Medical Device Tax,” American Action Forum, 6/4/2012) 

HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL: 43,000 MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY WORKERS COULD BE LAID OFF BY TAX HIKE: “Under reasonable assumptions, the tax could result in job losses in excess of 43,000 and employment compensation losses in excess of $3.5 billion.” (“Employment Effects of the New Excise Tax on the Medical Device Industry,” Healthcare Leadership Council, September 2011)

MEDICAL INDUSTRY STUDY PREDICTS 39,000 JOBS LOST: “A $3 billion hit on the medical device industry — roughly the effect of the healthcare reform law’s industry tax — would cost nearly 39,000 jobs and more than $8 billion in economic output, according to a new report released Monday by the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed).” (Julian Pecquet, “Medical Device Makers Decry Cost of Tax,” The Hill, 3/26/2012)

SEVERAL MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANIES ARE ALREADY OUTSOURCING JOBS AND LAYING OFF WORKERS: “Cook Medical is no longer planning to open a U.S. factory a year. Boston Scientific, planning for a more than $100 million charge against earnings in 2013, recently built a $35 million research and development facility in Ireland and is building a $150 million factory in China. (Capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well-treated.) Stryker Corp., based in Michigan, blames the tax for 1,000 layoffs. Zimmer, based in Indiana, is laying off 450 and taking a $50 million charge against earnings. Medtronic expects an annual charge against earnings of $175 million.”(George Will, “Taxing Jobs Out of Existence,” The Washington Post, 5/9/2012)

SOME MEDICAL DEVICE MAKERS “HAVE ALREADY ANNOUNCED LAYOFFS AHEAD OF THE TAX”: (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

OBAMACARE’S HEART ATTACK TAX WOULD TAX “EVERYTHING FROM CARDIAC DEFIBRILLATORS TO ARTIFICIAL JOINTS TO MRI SCANNERS”:“’Taxmageddon’ isn’t only about the half-trillion-dollar blow to the economy that arrives in 2013 on the end of the Bush-Obama tax rates. Several of the Affordable Care Act’s worst tax increases kick in too, such as the new excise tax on medical devices. The 2.3% levy applies to the sale of everything from cardiac defibrillators to artificial joints to MRI scanners.” (Editorial, “Improvised Explosive Device Tax,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/28/2012)

THE TAX COULD HIT PACEMAKERS, STENTS, ELASTIC BANDAGES, ARTIFICIAL HIPS AND KNEES, ETC.: (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

The heart attack tax could also be disastrous for life-saving medical innovations by leveling a tax larger than the industry’s entire research and development budget:

TAX IMPACT IS DOUBLE THE SIZE OF TOTAL ANNUAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT BUDGET IN MEDICAL DEVICES: “The 2.3 percent tax will be a $20 billion blow to an industry that employs more than 400,000, and $20 billion is almost double the industry’s annual investment in research and development.” (George Will, “Taxing Jobs Out of Existence,” The Washington Post, 5/9/2012)

“OBAMACARE’S MEDICAL DEVICE TAX KILLS PATIENTS, NOT JUST JOBS”:(John R. Graham, “ObamaCare’s Medical-Device Tax Kills Patients, Not Just Jobs,” Forbes, 6/6/2012) 

HEART ATTACK TAX WILL REDUCE U.S. LIFE EXPECTANCY BY HURTING INNOVATION OF LIFE-EXTENDING MEDICAL DEVICES: “Based upon the peer-reviewed literature on the relationship between investment in medical technology and improvements in life expectancies, this investment decline can be predicted to yield an annual decline of about 1 million expected lifeyears for the U.S. population, concentrated upon particular population subgroup.” (Benjamin Zycher, “ObamaCare’s Tax on Medical Devices: Cuts R&D By $2 Billion a Year,” Pacific Research Institute, May 2012)

“COMPANIES AT MAKE-OR-BREAK MARGINS COULD BE TAXED OUT OF EXISTENCE,” ESPECIALLY START-UPS AND MID-SIZED FIRMS: “The device tax is supposed to raise $28.5 billion from 2013 to 2022, and it is especially harmful because it applies to gross sales, not profits. Companies at make-or-break margins could be taxed out of existence, especially in an intensely competitive industry where four of five businesses are start-ups or midsized.” (Editorial, “Improvised Explosive Device Tax,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/28/2012) 

TAX WILL MEAN “FEWER PAIN-REDUCING AND LIFE-EXTENDING INVENTIONS”: “So the 2.3 percent tax, unless repealed, will mean not only fewer jobs but also fewer pain-reducing and life-extending inventions — stents, implantable defibrillators, etc. — which have reduced health-care costs.” (George Will, “Taxing Jobs Out of Existence,” The Washington Post, 5/9/2012)

MEDICAL INDUSTRY: “TAX WILL STIFLE INNOVATION AND SEND JOBS OVERSEAS”: (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

“MEDICAL DEVICE TAX MAY SPUR PRICE HIKES”: “Raising prices and cutting spending are among the steps medical device makers are considering to offset the impact of a new U.S. excise tax on the devices, set to take effect in 2013, according to a survey by global accounting and audit firm KPMG.” (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

61% OF MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANIES EXPECT TAX TO HURT THEIR ABILITY TO GROW: (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

“DEVICE MAKERS WILL PASS ON THE TAX” TO CONSUMERS; RESULT: “LESS INNOVATION, FEWER JOBS, HIGHER HEALTH CARE COSTS”: “To the extent they can, device makers will pass this tax on to the hospitals and provider purchasing groups that buy their products, which will ultimately show up in insurance premiums. Or they’ll offset the costs with layoffs or by slashing research and development. Less innovation, fewer jobs, higher health costs—the usual ObamaCare trifecta.” (Editorial, “Improvised Explosive Device Tax,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/28/2012) 

House Democrats are prepared to again defend ObamaCare no matter the cost to job creators or the quality of healthcare:

WHITE HOUSE THREATENS TO VETO MEDICAL DEVICE TAX REPEAL: “White House officials threatened a veto Wednesday of a Republican bill that would repeal a tax on the makers of many medical devices sold in the U.S., in the latest partisan clash over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.”(Alan Fram, “White House Veto Threat on Medical Device Tax,” Associated Press, 6/6/2012) 

JUST 12 HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE ALREADY SIGNED ON FOR REPEALING THE TAX: “Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen’s device tax repeal bill has 238 cosponsors, including a dozen Democrats.” (Editorial, “Improvised Explosive Device Tax,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/28/2012)

DEMS HAVE REPEATEDLY PROVED THEY WON’T REPEAL OR EVEN FIX OBAMACARE:

98% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE: (Roll Call 14, Clerk of the U.S. House, 1/19/2011)

95% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE SLUSH FUNDS: (Roll Call 264, Clerk of the U.S. House, 4/13/2011

95% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING FUNDS FOR OBAMACARE STATE EXCHANGES: (Roll Call 285, Clerk of the U.S. House, 5/3/2011)

97% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING FUNDS FOR OBAMACARE HEALTH CENTERS: (Roll Call 290, Clerk of the U.S. House, 5/4/2011)

83% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTE AGAINST REPEALING FISCALLY DISASTROUS “CLASS” PROGRAM: (Roll Call 18, Clerk of the U.S. House, 2/1/2012)

90% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING IPAB: (Roll Call 126, Clerk of the U.S. House, 3/22/2012)

87% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE SLUSH FUNDS TO PREVENT STUDENT INTEREST RATE HIKES:  (Roll Call 195, Clerk of the U.S. House, 4/27/2012)