Devices & Diagnostics

Is the medical device excise tax repeal worth government shutdown? Advocate senators torn along party lines

The Senate voted to kill the House amendments that would delay Obamacare and fund the government in a vote 54-46. Indiana is a good example of the division of the country on Obamacare, with the medical device excise tax at the heart of the matter. Both Sen. Dan Coats (R) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) […]

By Lindsey Alexander on September 30, 2013

The Senate voted to kill the House amendments that would delay Obamacare and fund the government in a vote 54-46.

Indiana is a good example of the division of the country on Obamacare, with the medical device excise tax at the heart of the matter. Both Sen. Dan Coats (R) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) have stumped against the medical device tax, as Indiana is the No.4 medical device manufacturing state in the country. However, in the vote taken in the Senate today to kill the House’s government spending bill that would include a delay of Obamacare and repeal the device tax, Sen. Coats voted to accept the bill, Donnelly to kill it. (Obviously, Coats would like to see Obamacare defunded as well, which makes his vote a bit simpler.)

In fact, one of the most vocal proponents of the device tax repeal, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), also voted to kill the bill.

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According to C-SPAN:

Late this morning, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said that Majority Leader Reid has indicated he will strip out provisions of the continuing resolution and send it back to House as a “clean” bill. . . . Sen. Boxer . . . said the repeal of the medical device tax would add $30 billion to the federal debt over the next 10 years.

While the rhetoric soon might spin to say senators like Donnelly and Klochubar are unwilling to lend a hand to the medical device industry, their previous effort and hard work (especially Klobuchar’s) toward repeal says otherwise. I can see the opponents’ TV ads now: scary, diagonal black-and-white photos, a soundbite–Sen. So-and-So voted against the medical device excise tax repeal after he voted for repeal. But this kind of attack won’t be fair (not that that’s ever stopped a political campaign).

Many other lobbyists have repeated they find Obamacare noble but oppose the tax as illogical or unfair. If so, is this the wave the medical device industry wants to ride when all Americans are watching? Perhaps looming government shutdown isn’t worth it. Do we really want the medical device industry to be chained forever to government shutdown in the American people’s minds? Plus, there are other legislative options to getting rid of the tax.