COMMITTEE on WAYS and MEANS

In today’s Washington Post, George Will highlights the ways in which the Democrats’ health care law is already contributing to job loss and inhibiting economic growth here at home - leaving job creators and employees alike worried about whether the trend will continue as more and more provisions of the law take effect.
 
Mr. Will’s piece focuses on the new medical device tax in the law, which taxes everything from tongue depressors to pacemakers.  Beginning next year, device manufacturers will be slapped with a 2.3 percent excise tax on all U.S. sales of those products.  The $30 billion tax increase has left health care innovators struggling with how to manage yet another new “cost of doing business” that was foisted on them courtesy of ObamaCare.  What are the companies being forced to do as they prepare for this tax increase? 

• Stryker eliminated 1,000 U.S. jobs.  
• Zimmer laid off 450 U.S. workers.  
• Covidien released 200 employees.  
• Cook Medical cancelled plans to open a new factory in the United States, canceling plans for thousands of jobs.
• Boston Scientific decided to build a new research facility and a new manufacturing facility overseas.

Worst of all, this massive $30 billion tax increase has nothing to do with making health care more affordable or improving quality.  Instead, this money grab is meant to pay for ObamaCare’s staggering $1.8 trillion price tag.
 
Maybe former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right, and Congress did have to pass the law to find out what is in it.  And what have we learned so far?  Not only has ObamaCare made health care more expensive and caused people to lose the health plan they have and like, it also has resulted in job loss at home today – and hurt job creation for the future, too.