Shocker: MA medical device companies laying off workers to pay for ObamaCare tax

You mean businesses won’t eat costs imposed on them by Big Government?  Huh.  Who knew?  I mean, aside from me and everyone who isn’t a functional economic illiterate, who could have seen this coming?

Massachusetts medical-device companies say they’ll cut back on operational costs – and jobs – after a planned 2.3 percent tax on their products is implemented in 2013, according to a new survey.

The Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council, which held its annual meeting yesterday in Boston, said about 90 percent of the 100 medical-device firms said they would reduce costs due to the new tax tucked into the recently passed health-care reform bill.

The tax – imposed to help pay for the massive health-care industry overhaul and expansion – is “of the greatest concern” to a majority of its members, the survey found.

About 70 percent of the survey respondents said future innovation will be hurt by a new federal “physician sunshine bill.” The bill will require medical-device firms to report their marketing expenditures on physicians, and a recently passed gift-ban law in Massachusetts.

About 41 percent of the council’s members said the new health-care bill will help the industry by expanding the number of people getting health-care insurance.

But 42 percent said the new health-care reform bill won’t increase their business, the survey found.

Awesome.  Nothing encourages innovation in medical technology quite like taxing the companies that produce said innovation.

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