Medical device tax: Shutdown-averting stopgap would delay tax, Senate bill would kill it outright

House Republicans last night presented their plan for funding the government ahead of an end-of-week shutdown deadline that would press the pause button again on the medical device tax, but it’s unclear whether the fractious GOP can unite in the face of Democrats’ opposition. The 2.3% excise tax on U.S. medical device revenues was in effect for two years before a two-year moratorium went into effect for 2016 and 2017. It went back into effect at the beginning of this year. In the Upper Chamber, the text of a bill to outright repeal the tax from Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released yesterday shows that it would offset the revenues lost by killing the tax by ending tax breaks for the energy industry. The stop-gap House push to avert a shutdown would be the fourth such measure since September, extending the deadline another four weeks until Feb 16. In addition to pausing the medtech tax, it would pause other levies enacted as part of Obamacare, including the “Cadillac tax” for two years retroactive to Jan. 1 and the health insurance tax for one year starting in 2019. The measure would also grant a 6-year extension to Medicaid’s Children’s Health Insurance Program Although the Republican rank and file reportedly supports it, conservative Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told Politico that many of his members oppose the plan, calling the tax delays a “gimmick.” “Based on the number of ...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Wall Street Beat medicaldevicetax U.S. Congress Source Type: news