WASHINGTON – Rep. Erik Paulsen on Tuesday introduced a bill to kill the medical device tax that is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Paulsen, whose district is home to many medical technology companies, has tried three times without success to end the 2.3 percent excise tax on device sales since it was included in the 2010 health care bill and took effect in 2013.
The fourth time around, his chances are much better.
In 2015, Paulsen got a device tax repeal through the House with a lopsided bipartisan vote. But the Senate would only agree to a two-year suspension on collection of the tax for 2016 and 2017. With collections set to start again in January 2018, Paulsen is going for the coup de grace with a GOP-controlled House, Senate and White House that have made repealing the ACA a top priority.
The device tax repeal "is probably going to get put into a budget reconciliation [with the rest of the ACA repeal] that only needs a simple majority vote in the Senate," said Steve Parente, a professor and director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota.
President Obama, who made the ACA the signature legislation of his first term, always threatened vetoes of efforts to overturn it, including budget reconciliation. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, "will sign it for sure," said Parente.
A free-standing device tax bill would have needed a 60-vote Senate majority to end debate. That had been a stumbling block in the past.
The fact that the tax was suspended after it had been collected for two years spoke to the lobbying strength of the medical device industry, which employs thousands in Minnesota and spent millions of dollars trying to bring the tax down.