Andrew Kyle Omaha kill our 98 year old company. Medical Device companies are not a golden goose - cut it open for the gold and you have a dead goose and many unemployed people I hate Obama and am glad to see him have to hand the government reins to Trump in front of the nation

Geoffrey Spence This makes sense. Unlike a 'Sin Tax' this both punishes and negates the potential for good.

Scott EM Roberts I risk, yet again, a spate of abuse, but i hope this forum will conceed me the space. We in Europe have many institutional faults. Debatably we have no government "process across the board, just a single currency". But our health care system costs us an average of 11% of GDP. All europeans are covered. USA multinationals.come to Europe for clinical trials, to avoid litigation. And the USA pays 19.5 % of GDP on healthcare. And for many, no coverage, and for some partial. We in Europe cant understand this. Can someone enlighten us?

Jerald Ostvig Mr Roberts, I will try to answer in no particular order 1) surgeries performed per capita much higher in US than Euro. 2) Litigation - US has about 75% of world's lawyers...enough said. 3)Subsidize rest of world - When countries require price fixing of pharma drugs/med device they charge more in US to make up difference since they can. 4)US people less healthy - Being overweight puts stress on heart, arteries, knees, hips etc = more surgeries. 5)FDA regulation is much more rigorous for US, results in much higher prices for drugs/devices.

Taxes are not everything. In Europe we have fairly high corporate taxes. Dispite that our medical industry is prospering and we much less of GDP on healthcare than in the US. So reducing taxes just seem to be a short-sighted and brainless way of improving the med device industry.

Nana Ryu It is imperative to reduce the tax because of so many great damages on medical device companies and even the whole industry.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2015/06/24/americas-ailing-medical-device-industry-needs-a-tax-cut/#4ffb1d73728f

The US needs to unravel WHY our costs are so high. All of the reasons Jerald O. listed are correct, but they still beg the question, why? Lots of European countries have figured out how to provide healthcare, contain healthcare costs, focus on healthy lifestyles, ALL WHILE continuing to develop products and innovate. American companies have lobbyists who constantly work to cut taxes on companies, even if the companies can afford it. It seems, as Americans, we're more focused on developing and selling products only to those who can afford to pay. In doing so, taking away or de-funding the Affordable Care Act, and denying patients in the US, access to healthcare. Something has to give, folks. Surely we can figure this out for THE COMMON GOOD, and not just the good of stockholders in companies. From what I've read about the true impact of the tax on device companies, the numbers don't tell a desperate story for the device companies. I will certainly continue read about the impact and monitor, however.

Creating jobs will require to rethink the tax strategy. The MedTech tax already resulted in M&A deals based on tax optimization ie MDT/Covidien. Time to cut.

Taxes are not paid by the corporation. They are passed to the consumer/payer. Insurance companies can drive down the reimbursements to the point that providers walk away from the table. Who looses then? The patient. Taxes strangle business growth, and increase the cost to the consumer/payer. When an insurance company owns the practice, we have bigger problem. That's not benefitting the patient. You can't cure greed. Epi pen ring a bell. However, this single payer direction is killing competition and innovation.

tax cuts won't compensate for cost advantages for maintaining operations in Costa Rica.

Jerry Curl The closest thing we have to socialized medicine here in the US, is the (VA's) veterans hospitals and clinics. Because they are run by the government, they are full of red tape, have exorbitant waiting periods causing patients to go without much-needed care for weeks and often months! There are reported many avoidable deaths have occurred because of the bureaucracy within the system. This too is unacceptable. Personally I feel that if we can straighten out the VA system then we will have a shot at creating a true single-payer system that can work here in the US. But in reality I know that this is a pipe dream, and will not happen in my lifetime.

Jerry Curl Tort reform could/would make a significant impact in reducing costs. Litigation is a significant reason costs are so high here in the US, plus as Jerald Ostvig points out, our path to market is significantly more rigorous here, adding to costs. Unlikely (and no disrespect intended) socialized medicine throughout Europe and around the globe, we in the US do not have to wait to be treated or have surgery. Our insurance coverages, pre-ObamaCare were pretty robust, they would cover approximately 80% of the cost in most cases. Did the system have issues, yes... pre-existing conditions were denied, and insurers could drop you if you developed a costly chronic condition. Then there were (and now still are) the uninsured... issues that were supposed to be addressed by Obamacare, but were instead morphed into a bigger problem we believe in competition here, it's a free market society. But when the government steps in, taxes the heck out of you, puts in stifling regulations, and creates massive bureaucracy that makes it virtually impossible for the poor or homeless to have access to decent healthcare, the system is broken. (Don't forget the aforementioned lawyers).

Anyone who tried to actually read the bill would have recognized that it was a very sneaky plan for the government to control our lives and one sixth of the economy. It was never designed to bring down healthcare costs...only to eventually take over every aspect. It was a cleverly designed Trojan Horse...first to socialized medicine, then to socialism. Thank God it's quickly collapsing under it's own weight :-(.

interesting comments re torts and shortsightedness

Alvaro Viquez Repealing the tax would worsen the federal budget deficit.

"Any time you repeal a tax, that is a loss of revenue to the federal government," said Jack Hoadley, a research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute.

Jon Gardner The biggest issue in healthcare is access for the poor (or "underfunded" if you prefer). There are ultimately only two ways to address this. One is for a powerful central government to take control over every aspect of healthcare--the bureaucrats must be able to control not just costs, but who gets care, who has to provide care (meaning they can force people to be doctors, nurses, etc. and control their compensation), what services are actually available, etc.--everything. That leads to "lowest common denominator" health care--very basic, nothing special, very little innovation, and tons of red tape. Oh, and folks with money still get better services, either through the free market or the black market. The other way to address the issue is to increase freedom as much as possible, reward innovation and hard work, and encourage individuals & groups to take personal responsibility for helping underfunded individuals & groups. That's called "charity," and it actually works.

Jim Smith We lost jobs and companies and tax revenue here in Massachusetts to that unfair tax. Do you get that back? Not quickly for certain.

Alan DeRossett A tax savings for sure but overall loss of medical coverage will reduce market size

David Gomez Getting rid of anti-trust GPOs would be a great start. Allow the market competition to fight it out and drive down cost, vs limit access to markets by much more innovative companies not associated with them. Hold hospitals accountable for antitrust issues stemming from them not seeking alternatives outside of contracts or refusing to do business with small business. Most decisions made in healthcare are only related to cost, not intrinsic value. The end is coming for that extortive mindset, trust me.

This will spur Growth

Great news if it happens

Let's hope so!

I concur with Mr. Rick Simoni, our founding fathers used a simple gauge to measure the subversive characteristics of oppressive "Ruler's Law" identified primarily as Tyranny. They sought a balance between the measure of tyrannical monarchy and total anarchy. A Democratic Republic ruled by the people! This Healthcare reform law was a tool developed to eventually take us to a single payer system like Canadian's have where control resides in the hands of the Federal Government. This is contrary to our foundation principles and moves power away from the people and into the hands of central government. In stead of nationalizing healthcare, individuals should be given individual healthcare savings account that they may spend as they see fit. Allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines for individuals and corporate customer acquisition will Helen drive cost and place control back in the hands of people! Healthcare managed by the individual dual, their families, Municipalities, States should be the very first steps to honor our values and Constitution. What we have here is a vying for centralized power-control-this dependency of government. This must be repealed and replaced immediately.

I bet my annual salary >90% of the savings go to shareholders and <10% go to "job creation".

Yes, Yes, and YES!!!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Love it!!! I have been specializing in the Government medical sales for almost 10 years . This is long over due!!

Theodore Kucklick The MDT was punishment against the med device industry for not playing ball with Max Baucus in the Senate when Obamacare was being cooked up. It is a gross receipts tax that clobbers startups. Good riddance.

Fantastic!

Corey Dowdle if it happens, this would be great. Not only does it hurt the OEMs, but also their suppliers feel the trickle down in some cases.

That's my boy!

Let's hope so!

CLSA is leading this front!

"Any time you repeal a tax that results in lost revenue for the government" or something like that. NO! Sell more and more tax is collected. EMPLOY MORE and more tax is collected along with fewer needing subsidy benefits. No sales tax is collected unless there are sales. "“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now”. That was said by JFK in 1962. I am pretty confident that this is true of income tax and well as sales tax. Further, having a tax targeted at necessary goods such as healthcare is quite insane as compared to the sin taxes of tobacco and alcohol...and now marijuana in some regretful places.

The end of a lot of things...

Jim Smith Unfortunately great damage has already been done. It will simply be too late for many.

Good thing I'm getting out of 3rd party manufacturing. Most OEM's will bring this back in-house!