Medical Device Tax Endangers 43,000 Jobs, Advanced Medical Technology Association Reports

An industry-funded report says a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical device manufacturers set to go into effect in 2013 could endanger almost 43,000 U.S. jobs while making health care slightly more expensive to consumers. In a report released Wednesday, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a trade lobby, said the coming tax will cut into companies' revenues and force them to move manufacturing facilities offshore in order to escape the growing U.S. tax burden. "The device tax could cost thousands of jobs, depending on the cutback and what percent of the industry moves offshore," Diana Furchtgott-Roth, co-author of the report and a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank, told reporters on a call Wednesday. "We assume a loss of about 43,000 jobs in the medical device industry, if for example just 10 percent of manufacturers' activity moves offshore."