WASHINGTON — Scoffing at a White House veto threat, the House voted Thursday to repeal a tax on medical-device makers that Republicans cast as a job-killing levy that would stifle an innovative industry.
Lawmakers approved the measure 270-146, with three dozen Democrats from states with a heavy presence of medical-equipment makers like Minnesota and Pennsylvania joining majority Republicans. Most Democrats said the bill was yet another GOP attempt to weaken President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, which created the tax to help pay for that law’s expansion of health care coverage to 30 million Americans.
The election-year clash over the bill was the latest between the two parties to mix the themes of jobs and taxes.
Republicans and the medical-device industry were hoping Thursday’s vote would pressure the Senate to approve the measure, sponsored by Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn. Its fate there seems bleak, with senior Democrats saying they don’t intend to bring it up for a vote.
The 2.3 percent tax, set to take effect in January, is aimed at U.S. sales of medical devices used chiefly by doctors and hospitals, such as pacemakers and CT scan machines. Exempted are consumer items like eyeglasses and kits for many blood tests that people can perform on themselves.
Repealing the tax would cost the government $29 billion over the coming decade. To pay for that, Republicans included a provision raising $44 billion by erasing limits on money the government could recover in overpayments to lower-earning people who will get insurance subsidies under the health care law.
U.S. medical-device companies employ about 400,000 people and boast sales of about $130 billion annually. Citing a study financed by AdvaMed, the industry’s largest trade group, Republicans said the tax would eliminate about 43,000 jobs, be especially hard on startup companies and eat up money that could be used to develop new products.
