By Jof Enriquez – March 9, 2017
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have unveiled proposed legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which, among several tax cuts, will eliminate permanently the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices and products.
The device tax has been suspended since December 2015, but GOP lawmakers and industry lobbyists have been pushing for a permanent repeal of a tax that they claim is detrimental to U.S. medtech innovation, as well as a jobs killer. A House of Representatives bill seeking to fully repeal the tax was filed in January.
Unveiled this week, the replacement of Obamacare known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA), will likely achieve the full repeal, beginning Jan. 1, 2018, according to RAPS.
The bill would repeal nearly all Obamacare taxes that would have cost health insurance firms, medical device makers, and other healthcare companies tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, reports The Washington Post.
