Victory is within reach.

That was the message delivered by medical device tax repeal advocates this week as they reaffirmed their commitment to the mission and roused fresh support from industry leaders, company executives and innovators. The pep talks were plentiful at the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) 2015 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., where several politicians made cameo appearances during the event’s two-day run.

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.)—the levy’s main legislative adversary—pledged his continued support during the meeting’s opening reception, vowing to “cross the finish line” with a bipartisan bill signed by President Obama. “As we all know, the President is an advocate of the Affordable Care Act,” he told a small crowd at the April 29 welcome soiree. “My goal is to have the bill repealing [the tax] signed by the President and hanging on my wall.”

Easier said than done. President Obama is as much a proponent of the tax as Paulsen is its enemy, and he’s promised to veto any attempts to rescind it. Paulsen, however, is unfazed by the threat, having introduced repeal legislation on the first working day of the 114^th Congress (Jan. 6). The bill, “Protect Medical Innovation Act,” has 277 co-sponsors, at least 17 of whom are Democrats. Similar legislation introduced by Paulsen in the last Congress passed the U.S. House of Representatives on two separate occasions but was not brought up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

Such snubbing ended with the Jan. 13 unveiling of companion legislation in the U.S. Senate (courtesy of Utah Republican Orrin Hatch) and the March 24 introduction of the “No Taxation on Device Innovation Act” by U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). The latter bill is similar to Paulsen’s legislation in demanding the tax be repealed, but it shifts the financial burden to the oil/gas industry, proposing the government end tax breaks and subsidies for that sector, and close existing free-drilling statutory loopholes. Markey believes the oil/gas industry will weather the impact fairly well, as it stands to receive more than $70 billion in tax breaks and subsidies over the next decade. “It’s time to end 19^th-century tax breaks for highly profitable oil and gas companies that need no assistance and invest in 21-century innovation and companies that create jobs and save lives,” Markey said when he introduced his bill.

Last week, the Senate Finance Health Subccommittee, chaired by U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.)—another medtech industry ally—held a hearing on the device tax, listening to testimony from infusion therapy/pain management device maker B. Braun and several patients on the levy’s impact. Toomey began the hearing by admitting his repugnance for the tax: “I will make no bones about it. My strong preference would be to have a full and permanent and complete repeal of the medical device tax because it’s my view that this tax is doing considerable harm—economic harm.”  

Trade groups like the MDMA and Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) agree, noting the tax will lead to a loss of 195,000 jobs among manufacturers and suppliers over the next five years. Specifically, an MDMA survey conducted late last year found that 72 percent of medtech companies have slowed or halted job creation in the United States to pay the tax, and 85 percent claimed they would hire new American workers upon repeal. In addition, 80 percent of companies said they would increase research and development investment by an average of 14 percent if the levy was rescinded.  

Such hard yet debatable facts provide a sound argument for repeal, but champions of the effort realize they’ll need an alternative solution (like Markey’s proposal) or a different strategy to win over longtime opponents and, quite possibly, President Obama.

“We have some good facts on our side but I also think the GAO [Government Accountability Office] report showing how difficult the tax is to assess and less revenue coming in for the ACA give us good arguments for elimination,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told MDMA meeting attendees on April 30. “With Senator Hatch at the helm in Finance, we’re hoping to get this moving along. We’re trying to figure out an alternative—some things we can do that the White House possibly would be supportive of.”