WaPo Fact Checker debunks industry’s jobs claims on device tax

There is “little evidence” to show that the roughly 29,000 jobs lost in the medical-device industry after the implementation of the medical-device were a direct result of the tax, according to a Washington Post report published today.

The 2.3% tax on non-retail medical devices went into effect on Jan. 2013a, with an effective rate of about 1.5% due to deduction claims, according to the report.

Medical device lobbying group AdvaMed claimed last month that the medtech industry lost approximately 29,000 jobs while the device tax was in effect, based upon the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Manufacturers.

AdvaMed, as well as the American Action Forum, claim that the timeline of job trends “aligns too closely with the tax to dismiss the losses as being caused by other factors,” according to the Washington Post.

But there’s no direct evidence showing a causal relationship between the tax and the lost jobs, the paper argues, as it doesn’t explain the slight recovery of jobs in 2015 or overall decline in jobs which began in 2011, suggesting other factors are at work.

A plan to repeal and replace Obamacare floated by Republicans earlier this month – which critics have dubbed “Trumpcare” – would permanently repeal the medical device tax effective Jan. 1, 2018.

A hold on the 2.3% tax on U.S. medical device sales went into effect at the beginning of 2016 and is slated to expire by the end of this year. The Trumpcare plan would kill the tax for good effective Jan. 1, 2018.

The healthcare bill today passed the House of Representatives Budget Committee, after receiving clearance from the Energy & Commerce and Ways and Means Committee last Thursday.

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