House panel to vote today on medical device tax repeal

A panel in the U.S. House of Representatives is slated to vote today on a measure that would do away altogether with the medical device 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 303 co-sponsors, including 44 Democrats, and could go to the House floor for a vote as soon as this month.

Last week House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) put the bill on the docket for the lower chamber’s Rules Committee meeting tonight at 5 p.m., according to GovTrack.us.

“We’re going to bring a bill to repeal the medical device tax, push back the health insurance taxes, the [health insurance tax] tax, some of these things that are hurting health care in this country,” majority whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Fox Business News.

As Capitol Hill gears up for a vote on Paulsen’s measure, the lobbying group that represents the medical device industry’s heaviest hitters is planning an all-out D.C. media blitz.

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