U.S. congressman vows to fight medical device tax

Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA) recently met with employees of Premier Dental Products to assure them that he intends to fight a proposed 2.3% excise tax on medical devices that is part of the U.S. healthcare reform law.

This tax was added to the reform bill to help fund expanded Medicaid coverage, including universal dental coverage. However, while the universal dental coverage did not make it into the final version of the bill, the tax did.

Premier employees had sent personal correspondence to Gerlach explaining the potential damage this legislation could do to their company and the dental products industry as a whole.

"We think the medical device tax is particularly burdensome and onerous tax in the legislation last year, and we will try to repeal it," Gerlach said during an informal discussion session with several of the employees last month. A number of hearings will be held on this issue to develop and introduce smaller, more targeted bills, he said.

"This tax puts a massive new burden upon the 2,000 companies in the U.S. that manufacture and supply products and services to oral health professionals and is wildly disproportionate compared to the dental services legislated in the bill," said Julie Charlestein, president of Premier Dental Products.