Jim Martin, “Congress must take bi-partisan action now to kill the bedpan tax. Doing so will save jobs now, and preserve critical medical advancements that will save lives in the future.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) — The 60 Plus Association, the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization and acknowledged alternative to the liberal AARP, today repeated its call for Congress and the President to repeal the Medical Devices Tax component of Obamacare, a 2.3% excise tax on medical equipment that is already costing thousands of Americans their jobs and undermining capital investments needed to fund future medical advances.

The tax went into effect this year, and the medical device manufacturers who oppose it have already paid over $1 billion in additional taxes to the federal government.  Most of the cost of the tax was paid for by cutting thousands of employees from payrolls, and scaling back investments into research and development.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “As predicted, the Medical Devices Tax is already putting people out of work in critical sectors of the healthcare industry and cutting tens of millions of dollars in research and development that will find future cures and better treatments for the sick and physically injured.

“When a government program is funded in part by taxing items for the sick and the weak, such as prosthetic legs, wheelchairs, and even bedpans, that alone should indicate disaster is around the corner.  Well the disaster has now started to arrive, which means Congress has no excuse to let the bedpan tax survive for even one more day.

“The truth about the Unaffordable Care Act is that it’s already costing us dearly, with more Americans out of work and a weaker economy for both the sick and healthy alike.  Over 10 years this tax will take $30 billion from the medical device industry who create jobs and future cures and instead be handed to federal bureaucrats.

“With initial results already showing large numbers of layoffs and cuts in research, even Democrats are now crossing the aisle to repeal the devices tax.  Full repeal of Obamacare remains the goal, but a step in the right direction for all of us is immediate action to repeal the bedpan tax once and for all.”

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