As Med Device Cos. Scramble on Obamacare Tax, Politicians Ask for Delay

Eighteen Democratic Senators and Senators-elect have signed on a letter to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, asking him to delay the implementation of a 2.3 percent excise tax on the medical device industry, which was part of the federal health care overhaul and is set to go into effect at the start of the new year. The letter was co-sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren both signed on to the letter. Locally, the Massachusetts medical device industry is in mid-scramble to prepare to implement the tax, according to Tom Sommer, President of the state’s chief industry group, MassMedic. “The final regulations just came out earlier this month, and device companies will have to send a check to the U.S. Treasury Department every two weeks, with the first one due on January 18th,” Sommer said. Sommer said that it’s a burden on an innovative industry that has a large number of small businesses, which will have to develop systems to estimate sales ahead of time and calculate the tax twice per month, since the tax is prospective, not retrospective.

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