Even Democrats Agree, ObamaCare Kills American Jobs

September 29, 2012

Even Democrats Agree, ObamaCare Kills American Jobs

Former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh Says Obamacare Threatens Thousands of American Jobs and Stifles Medical Innovation

Even Democrats are starting to realize what a bad dose of medicine Obamacare has become as former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh calls for the repeal of Obamacare’s hidden medical device tax.
The hidden tax that hits everything from defibrillators and bandages to artificial hips and incubators threatens to ship thousands of American jobs overseas.
But it’s just too little, too late as Democrat’s have voted time and time again to keep Obamacare and its job-killing taxes.

Even Democrats are starting to realize what a bad dose of medicine Obamacare has become as former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh calls for the repeal of Obamacare’s hidden medical device tax.

FORMER US SENATOR EVAN BAYH (D-IN): “GIVEN THE FRAGILE STATE OF THE US ECONOMY, CONGRESS MUST MOVE QUICKLY TO REDRESS THE HARM FROM THIS TAX BEFORE IT BECOMES IRREVERSIBLE”: (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY A “GREAT AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY” EMPLOYING 400,000 WORKERS IN GOOD PAYING JOBS: “The medical-device industry has been a great American success story. More than 400,000 U.S. workers are employed in this sector directly, and another two million, including those involved in supply and distribution, benefit indirectly. At a time when the economy struggles to produce good jobs, medical-device positions pay well. Average compensation is $58,188 annually compared with a national average of $41,673 annually for all employment, a 2010 Pew Foundation report found.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

AMERICAN MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY HAS MADE “REMARKABLE ADVANCES” IN SAVING AND SUSTAINING LIFE: “Even more important to the average American is the industry’s role in saving and sustaining life. Medical devices have contributed to remarkable advances in numerous areas: artificial hips and knees, and devices used in the treatment of cancer, and for angioplasty, vascular surgery and in-vitro fertilization, to name a few. Many of these devices have not only improved the quality of life for patients, but also produced health-care cost savings—for instance, each time an angioplastic balloon made open-heart surgery unnecessary.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

YET, 2.3% TAX TAKES EFFECT IN JANUARY, CAUSING MANY COMPANIES TO ANNOUNCE LAYOFFS: “The 2.3% tax will be charged to manufacturers on each sale and takes effect in January. Many U.S. device companies, in response, have already announced layoffs, canceled plans for domestic expansion and slashed research-and-development budgets.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

2.3% TAX ON REVENUE MEANS A 15% TAX ON PROFIT, MOVING TOTAL TAX LIABILITY FOR MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY TO 50%: “The hit will be severe. For a typical company, a 2.3% tax on revenues equals a 15% tax on profits. When combined with a 35% corporate tax and state corporate taxes, the tax rate for the medical-device industry will exceed 50% in most jurisdictions. Many marginally profitable businesses will then hemorrhage red ink, since they’ll have to pay the excise tax whether they are making money or not.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

PRODUCTION OF MEDICAL DEVICES MOVING TO EUROPE AND ASIA, KILLING AMERICAN JOBS: “As a result of the looming device tax, production is moving overseas, good jobs are going to Europe and Asia, and cutting-edge medical devices will now be produced elsewhere for import into the U.S.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

ESPECIALLY HARD HIT WILL BE SMALL BUSINESSES MAKING MEDICAL SOFTWARE: “Especially hard hit could be the hundreds of small companies developing medical software applications. These apps promise to revolutionize the practice of medicine—for instance, by delivering blood-sugar test results for diabetics. The IRS is deciding now whether to treat apps as medical devices subject to the tax. The adverse effect of this confiscatory level of taxation on traditional device makers is already clear.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

The hidden tax that hits everything from defibrillators and bandages to artificial hips and incubators threatens to ship thousands of American jobs overseas.

BAYH: MEDICAL DEVICE TAX HITS “EVERY DEVICE WE DEPEND ON TO SAVE LIVES”: “The Supreme Court decision in June upholding the Affordable Care Act leaves in place a tax on medical devices that threatens thousands of American jobs and our global competitiveness. It will also stifle critical medical innovation in the industry that gave us defibrillators, pacemakers, artificial joints, stents, chemotherapy delivery systems and almost every device we depend on to save lives.” (Evan Bayh, “Obamacare’s Tax Raid On Medical Devices,” Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2012)

MEDICAL DEVICE TAX WOULD HIT “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: (Susan Kelly, “Medical Device Tax May Spur Price Hikes, Cost Cuts,” Reuters, 4/18/2012)

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)

JOBS HAVE ALREADY BEEN OUTSOURCED DUE TO THE TAX: “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)

INDIANA COMPANY CANCELLED PLANS TO OPEN FIVE NEW PLANTS DUE TO NEW MEDICAL DEVICE TAX IN OBAMACARE: “Cook Medical Inc. had been planning to open five new manufacturing plants over the next five years in small communities around the Midwest, including Indiana, but has shelved those plans because of the hit it will take from a new U.S. tax on medical devices.” (J.K. Wall, “Cook Medical Shelves Midwest Expansion Plan,” Indiana Business Journal, 7/27/2012)

COMPANY NOW SAYS “THEIR FUTURE GROWTH WILL BE FOCUSED OVERSEAS”: “Since then, Cook officials have said their future growth will be focused overseas. Cook already has production facilities in Ireland, Denmark and Australia.” (J.K. Wall, “Cook Medical Shelves Midwest Expansion Plan,” Indiana Business Journal, 7/27/2012)

MEDICAL DEVICE ASSOCIATION SAID OBAMACARE’S HEART ATTACK TAX COULD FORCE “43,000 JOBS OVERSEAS”: “The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) released a report Wednesday that says device-makers might ship 43,000 jobs overseas once the tax takes effect in 2013.” (Sam Baker, “Device-Makers Say Tax Will Cost 43,000 U.S. Jobs,” The Hill‘s ” Health Watch,” 9/7/2011)

MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY LEADERS SAY NEW TAX WILL HURT MANUFACTURERS: “Executives in the medical device manufacturing industry predict that a new excise tax and the burden of its related compliance costs will hurt their companies’ bottom lines, according to a survey conducted by KPMG LLP, an audit, tax, and advisory firm.” (Chris Reidy, “KPMG Survey: New Tax Could Hit Medical Device Companies Hard,” The Boston Globe , 4/18/12)

40% OF MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY LEADERS EXPECT TO RESORT TO LAYOFFS:“According to the survey of 190 financial executives from the medical device manufacturing industry, 40 percent of respondents said their companies are already contemplating actions such as price increases and cost reductions, including possible layoffs, as a way to stay competitive.” (Chris Reidy, “KPMG Survey: New Tax Could Hit Medical Device Companies Hard,” The Boston Globe , 4/18/12)

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)

But it’s just too little, too late as Democrat’s have voted time and time again to keep Obamacare and its job-killing taxes.

98% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED IN JAN 2011 AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE AND STOPPING IT FROM OUTSOURCING JOBS: (Roll Call 14, Clerk of the U.S. House, 1/19/2011)

96% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST CUTTING OFF FUNDING TO IMPLEMENT OBAMACARE’S OUTSOURCING PROVISIONS: (Roll Call 270, Clerk of the U.S. House, 4/14/2011)

77% OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING THE HEART ATTACK TAX THAT COULD LEAD TO OUTSOURCING: (Roll Call 361, Clerk of the U.S. House, 6/7/2012)

97% OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAIN THIS JULY TO PREVENT OBAMACARE REPEAL: (Roll Call 460, Clerk of the U.S. House, 7/11/2012)

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