Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed the “Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2015”, which repeals the 2.3 percent tax on medical device sales.

The tax, which took effect in 2013, was designed to support the president’s Affordable Care Act. Though ACA has provided medical coverage for some 16 million Americans, opponents of the tax, like Marlin Stutzman, Jackie Walorski, Joe Donnelley and Dan Coats, have claimed the tax has had a negative effect on the medical device industry – a major component of Kosciusko County’s economy.

“It’s time to stop propping up Obamacare with a tax on the medical device industry at the expense of the Hoosier economy,” Walorski wrote in a statement yesterday. “Because of this burdensome tax, businesses in my district, like Complexus Medical, have been forced to cut their budgets on research and development. This has impeded their discovery of innovative medical technologies. [Yesterday], republicans and democrats lifted a barrier to the growth of a vital industry. In doing so, the House continued its focus to enable a business climate that encourages, not penalizes, innovation and allows the medical device industry to grow, create jobs and produce new, life-saving technologies.”

“By removing this unfair burden from the backs of our innovators and manufacturers we can take an important step toward strengthening our economy,” wrote Stutzman in a similar statement.

Proponents of the tax felt the cost of the additional tax would offset the cost to manufacturing by new customers facilitated by the ACA, though many of those using the ACA’s services are younger or of lower economic status and would not have need for products like artificial knees.

CBS News reported a nonpartisan Congressional Research Service analyzed the tax earlier this year. It’s findings reported that the tax should have a negligible impact on medical device companies, as nominal increase in price would be passed on to the consumer, with negligible decrease in demand. It also projected that the job loss would be no more than 1,200 jobs. However, exponentially more jobs have been lost since the tax took effect.

“World-class companies like Biomet, Boston Scientific, Hill-Rom, Zimmer and dozens more don’t just create and produce life-saving technology, they also employ tens of thousands of Hoosiers,” wrote Rep. Todd Young in an Op-Ed piece.” These sorts of advanced manufacturing jobs are what make Indiana stand out economically. At a time when factories have closed and jobs in rust belt states have been sent overseas, medical device manufacturing jobs have been a lifeline for hardworking Hoosiers and their families.”

A statement from the White House, issued earlier this week stated, “As we work to make the system even better, we are open to ideas that improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care, and help middle class Americans. [The Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2015] which would provide a large tax break to profitable corporations by repealing the medical device excise tax, does not advance these goals. The medical device industry, like others, will benefit from millions of new consumers who are gaining health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. This excise tax is one of several designed so that industries that gain from the coverage expansion will help offset the cost of that expansion. Its repeal would take away a funding source for financial assistance that is working to improve coverage and affordability and would increase the federal deficit by $24.4 billion over 10 years.”

The next stop for the bill is the Senate, which voted almost unanimously to repeal the tax in 2012. The same statement from the White House indicated President Obama’s advisers would urge him to veto the repeal, if possible.