WASHINGTON – Flanked by eight other House members from both parties, Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota on Wednesday touted his latest push to kill the medical device tax. He pointed to it as a way to prove to the American public that Congress can work together.
The medical device industry, including hundreds of companies in Minnesota, has spent millions lobbying against the tax, passed in 2010 to help pay for the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
"Members don't have to agree on how to achieve health care reform to find common ground in the need to promote American innovation and protect American manufacturing and research and development jobs," Paulsen said.
Minnesota's newest House member, Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, joined Paulsen at a news conference at the Capitol.
Paulsen's latest device tax repeal bill includes more than 250 House cosponsors. What it doesn't include is an alternative revenue source or new savings to offset the $30 billion the device tax was supposed to contribute to health care reform over the next decade.
An inability to find an offset has doomed past attempts to kill the tax.
Paulsen and Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., the principal minority sponsor of device tax repeal, hope committees of the House and Senate can negotiate an offset through savings in health care delivery.
Kind said he supported the ACA because the U.S. was spending twice as much per capita on health care as the rest of the developed world with worse outcomes. But moving forward, Kind said there is a "need for adjustment for what is working and what is not working."
