Job killers - Obama and Congress
November 2, 2009 – 2:31 pmI must be living in an alternate universe, where the crazies have taken over the asylum. Obama and Congress seem hellbent on driving every business out of the USA. This country is going to turn into one BIG California - a state where common sense has long ago departed.
So, you want national health care “reform”? I work at Beckman, an innovative medical instrument manufacturer that will be hit hard by this bill. My advice, don’t go to school - it is a waste of time. Learn to flip burgers. Even when burgers are made of soylent green somebody will still need to flip them. Innovators? Entrepreneurs? Who needs ‘em?
From the Beckman Coulter CEO, Scott Garrett:
“As you may have heard, the United States Senate Finance Committee cleared their version of a healthcare reform bill and it is moving through Congress. While the legislation is being debated, our leadership team continues to work vigorously to oppose the inclusion of the unfair and counterproductive $40 billion tax on medical devices that it includes.
I have recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where I met with several of our legislators. We made it clear that we favor elements of healthcare reform legislative drafts which put patients first and emphasize prevention and quality as the best path toward cost control. And in this vein, we see diagnostics as part of the solution—not part of the problem.
While everyone needs to help slow the rising cost of healthcare, the reality is that the clinical lab services and products sector has been helping to reduce costs for decades.
A logical next step for employees in the U.S. who feel strongly about the information above would be to learn more about the issues at the AdvaMed website http://capwiz.com/advamed/
You may also wish to contact the members of the House Committee on Ways and Means about this issue, by sending an email to their legislative analysts. Names of representatives and contact information for their analysts, as well as suggested text, are at the bottom of this message. Please note that the list includes only the states where we have sites with corresponding representation on the Ways and Means Committee. As we’ve said before, your participation is wholly voluntary.”
Scott Garrett
Chairman, President and CEO
One Response to “Job killers - Obama and Congress”
Medical Device and Diagnostics Value Added Tax
The Senate Finance Committee is contemplating a $40 billion excise tax on medical device and diagnostics products. AdvaMed strongly supports the Committee’s health care reform efforts and has worked cooperatively with Congressional leaders to advance the goals of health care reform; however this medical device tax is bad policy that AdvaMed opposes. It is our understanding that the proposed tax would be levied upon all manufacturers of medical device and diagnostics products as defined by the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. Under that definition, as many as 80,000 products currently sold in the US would be taxed ranging from toothbrushes to eyeglasses to condoms to stethoscopes to syringes to blood pressure monitors to hospital beds to artificial heart valves to pacemakers to advanced diagnostic equipment. The tax would apply regardless of the size of the company or their profitability. Recent independent estimates indicate annual domestic sales of these products at approximately $131 Billion. A domestic market of that size would require a tax rate of roughly 3.1%, which, depending on the company, would be roughly the equivalent of a 10-30% income tax surcharge. Such a rate would dramatically increase the overall effective rate of manufacturers, and, in turn, constrain resources used for research and development, investment in physical manufacturing capacity, and JOBS. The excise tax on medical products is bad policy.
http://capwiz.com/advamed/home/
By admin on Nov 2, 2009