Obamacare opponents have been raising red flags around this issue for some time, but today the IRS has finally issued preliminary guidelines for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation is expected to cost America tens of thousands of jobs, while also sending some high-end industries overseas. There’s more from the IRS available at the links in text below. That it’s being released on a Friday afternoon is no coincidence.


On February 3, 2012, the IRS and the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations on the new 2.3-percent medical device excise tax (IRC 4191) that manufacturers and importers will pay on their sales of taxable medical devices starting in 2013. Additional information is available in the Medical Device Excise Tax FAQs.

The IRS and Treasury Department request comments on the proposed regulations by May 7, 2012. Comments may be submitted electronically, by mail or hand delivered to the IRS. The preamble to the proposed regulations provides instructions on how to submit comments.

Industry sources have already begun weighing in through press releases of their own. There’s also a detailed analysis of the implications of the proposed guidelines here.

“The release today of proposed regulations to implement the $20 billion medical device tax scheduled to go into effect next year highlights the need for prompt action by Congress and the Administration to repeal this anti-competitive, job-killing tax.

“Studies have shown the tax will cost jobs – as many as 43,000 are at risk — at a time when the American economy is struggling and U.S. medical technology leadership in the world market is threatened by competitor nations who have grown their industries through more favorable tax and regulatory policies.

“The anticipated tax has already forced companies to lay off workers and to reduce critical R&D that will help drive the next wave of treatments and cures.

There was a rash of editorials opposed to the move back in January. It’s little wonder that the proposal would manage to find its way out on a Friday afternoon when fewer people are likely to be paying attention. It’s just another day in Obamacareville, and that means fewer jobs at a time when America can least afford it.

“Put simply, the new medical-device tax will steal jobs”

A year from now, the federal government will start collecting a new tax on medical devices — from tongue depressors to imaging machines — thanks to the sweeping health care overhaul that Democrats enacted in the spring of 2010.

People in the industry say it’s already having an effect.

In November, citing the new tax, Stryker Corp., whose products include artificial hips and knees, announced that it would let go about 1,000 of its workers.