Senate Temporarily Delays Health Reform Debate

With mounting opposition on both sides of the aisle to the “public option” in the Senate delayed its debate this week to rework the legislation to include an alternative plan to the public option that would likely allow uninsured to buy into the Medicare program. MDMA is working closely with Senate staff to improve the device related provisions, including the device tax. While MDMA opposes the imposition of a new tax on the industry, it is becoming less likely that the tax will be excluded in its entirety. Specifically, MDMA has been working with the NVCA and Advamed on an amendment that would exempt the first $100M in U.S. sales from any tax and U.S. sales from $100M-$150M would be taxed at half the rate. We are also seeking to delay the start date of the tax date until 2013 and make it deductible.