Senate Republicans on Thursday released a draft of their healthcare bill, which would permanently repeal the medical device tax, reports Regulatory Focus.
Here are five things to know.
- The medical device tax entails a 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices, payable by the manufacturer or importer of the device. The tax was imposed in 2013 as a funding mechanism for the ACA.
- Devicemakers have long opposed the tax, arguing it hurts innovation and unfairly burdens smaller device manufacturers.
- In 2015, Congress temporarily suspended the tax on the sale of nonretail medical devices like pacemakers, heart valves and artificial hips.
- The Senate bill would permanently repeal the tax before it takes effect again in 2018.
- The American Healthcare Act, passed in the House last month, also called for a repeal of the tax.