The current debate to reopen the U.S. government’s doors includes language to remove a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices such as hip and knee implants. LEGISLATORS beholden to special interest groups, vote in their favor. Always.
The tax on the manufacturers, not the patients, brings in $2.9 billion and is used to fund the Affordable Care Act.
The tax is a no-brainer considering how much the industry inflates its prices for U.S. consumers. The average cost for a hip replacement in the United States, for example, is upward of $100,000. In Europe, the same procedure averages less than $20,000. Both patients receive excellent care and have successful results.
U.S. healthcare costs are so much higher compared to other developed countries precisely because private manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson can charge whatever the market will bear for sophisticated medical devices such as artificial hips and kneecaps. In countries with universal health care, the government sets the price for what it will pay for devices.
That titanium hip costs an average $350 to manufacture, but is sold to hospitals at 10 times the price, according to services that track device pricing. And from there, the shell game begins between manufacturers, hospitals, providers and insurance companies, leaving the patient in the dark as to how that massive hospital bill ever materializes.
To no surprise, representatives of the medical device industry have mounted massive lobbying efforts to repeal the tax, in force since 2009.
It’s looking more and more like they’ll succeed.
Most every member of Congress, including our Kansas delegation, has benefited from the industry’s recent spending of $1.4 million. Of our Kansas delegation, those on the take include Senators Pat Roberts, $9,500, and Jerry Moran, $500, and House members Mike Pompeo, $2,500, Lynn Jenkins, $2,500 and Kevin Yoder, $2,500.
For 2011-12, the Kansas congressional delegation took in almost $3 million in donations from political action committees.
So when Congress votes to rescind this particular tax, perhaps they’ll understand why our faith in their leadership has slipped one more notch.
— Susan Lynn
Tax would give system a fighting chance
