AdvaMed readies media push ahead of House vote on medical device tax repeal

The lobbying group that represents the medical device industry’s heaviest hitters is planning an all-out D.C. media blitz ahead of an expected vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on permanently repealing the medtech tax.

Although the 2.3% levy on prescribed medical devices was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it didn’t go into effect until 2012 and was mothballed two years later; that moratorium, extended earlier this year, is slated to end in 2020.

Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), facing a tough re-election campaign, is taking yet another run at repealing the medical device tax. Paulsen, who filed his first bill to repeal the tax back in 2010, introduced his latest repeal bid in January 2017. The bill, H.R. 184, or the “Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2017,” aims to “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the excise tax on medical devices. The bill has 271 co-sponsors, including 43 Democrats, and could go to the House floor for a vote as soon as this month.

AdvaMed, the Advanced Medical Technology Assn., is planning to air a television spot in the D.C. area, plus strategically deployed static ads and a social media campaign of digital ads to influence members of Congress on repealing the tax.

Part of the plan involves placing ads at Beltway bus stops with the hope of catching Congressional staffers on their way to work, AdvaMed public affairs EVP Greg Crist told MassDevice.com today.

The television spot, slated to begin airing today, exhorts members of Congress to “Support Americans’ health. Support innovation. Repeal the medical device tax now.”

“The tax on medical devices puts Americans who depend on life-saving technologies at risk,” the ad avers. “Family hikes. Getting back to work. Life experience. That’s what really being taxed.”

The campaign to permanently repeal the medical device tax is also slated to run digital ads in media outlets including USA Today, CNN.com, Huffington Post, ABC News, McClatchy, Fox News, the Associated Press, Twitter and Facebook, Crist told us.

Here’s a look at the television spot via YouTube:

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