September 7, 2017 -- Washington, DC – The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) this week urging Congress to pass full repeal of the medical device tax in September of this year.

“The medical device tax has been responsible for job losses and reductions in R&D budgets, which hurts U.S. economic growth and stifles innovation for patients,” said Joe Robinson, chairman of the MITA board of directors and senior vice president of health systems solutions at Philips Healthcare. “To ensure the tax does not resume for any period of time, our leaders in Congress must act now to fully repeal the tax and give manufacturers the certainty they need to invest in hiring and ongoing innovation in 2018.”

The 2.3 percent medical device excise tax was levied on the sale of medical devices that are fundamental to the practice of medicine both in diagnosing and treating disease. A bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate came together in 2015 to approve a two-year suspension of the tax, but is set to expire at the end of the year.

The American medical technology industry is a true economic success story, providing jobs for more than 400,000 people, paying out salaries that are 40 percent more than the national average ($58,000 vs. $42,000), and investing nearly $10 billion in research and development annually to advance patient care in the United States and around the world. The industry is fueled by innovative companies, the majority of which are small businesses, with 80 percent of companies having fewer than 50 employees.

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The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of NEMA, is the collective voice of medical imaging equipment manufacturers, innovators and product developers. It represents companies whose sales comprise more than 90 percent of the global market for advanced medical imaging technology. For more information, visit www.medicalimaging.org. Follow MITA on Twitter @MITAToday.

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