House Health Care Bill Passes

The House of Representative's passed the Senate health care reform bill by a vote of 219-212.  In addition, the House also passed a corresponding reconciliation bill by a vote of 220-211.  The President is expected to sign the initial Senate bill into law on Tuesday. The Senate will likely take up the reconciliation bill on Wednesday and try to pass it before Easter.
 
MDMA is very concerned about the impact a $20B device tax will have on patient care, innovation and small businesses. If eliminating the tax is not possible, structuring it to provide relief for smaller companies is critical. Under the current structure, many companies will owe more in taxes than they generate in profits, requiring companies to layoff employees, cut R&D budgets and slow the development of new therapies that will improve the quality of care for all Americans. Moving forward, these issues must be addressed before the tax takes effect in 2013.