Republicans are reportedly trying to raise the pressure on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to support repealing the medical device tax, a position she’s taken since before winning her seat in the U.S. Senate.
Back in April 2012, as she battled then-Sen. Scott Brown (R) in a hard-fought election, Warren wrote an exclusive op-ed piece for MassDevice.com explaining her support for repealing the tax.
"When Congress taxes the sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the small companies with the narrowest financial margins and the broadest innovative potential. It also pushes companies of all sizes to cut back on research and development for life-saving products," Warren wrote. "With an appropriate offset, we can repeal the medical device tax without cutting health care coverage for millions of people or forcing Americans to fight the whole health care battle all over again."
Warren’s stance quickly exploded onto the national political scene as a rare example of a Democrat expressing less than full support for Pres. Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law.
Now Republicans are urging Warren to make good on her support for repealing the medical device tax, a 2.3% levy on U.S sales of prescribed medical devices, according to The Hill.
"Republican aides and industry sources" said they’re pushing Warren to sign on to forthcoming legislation from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that aims to repeal the tax, according to the website. Warren supported a Hatch-sponsored repeal amendment in March 2013, but never signed a similar Hatch bill last year.
J.C. Scott, AdvaMed’s senior executive vice president of government affairs, confirmed that the group has lobbied Warren on the issue.
"We’re cautiously optimistic that we have the votes to repeal the tax early in the year," Scott told the website.
Warren’s office declined repeated requests from The Hill for comment, according to the report.
Last week Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) filed the latest in a series of medtech tax repeal bids, coming out of the gate with enough co-sponsors – including dozens of Democrats – to ensure passage in the now-Republican-led Lower Chamber.
