Everything you need to know about the DTA's fight against the medical device tax (And why you should support it)

The Dental Trade Alliance continues to fight for the elimination of the medical device tax and is calling on dental professionals and dental product manufacturers to contact their members of Congress to demand support in the next round of the 'fiscal fight' taking place in February.

The DTA previously stated that the fate of the medical device tax was tied to the debate on the ‘fiscal cliff,’ taxes and program cuts. The group maintains that dental businesses will not benefit from the health reform law and for dental companies the tax is unfair.

According to a statement released today by the DTA, the tax will result in higher prices to dentists and patients, fewer sales of new devices, cutbacks in research and development and lost jobs. The release explains:

"Critics say the tax is damaging because it applies not to company profits but to its total sales of medical devices, whether or not the company turns a profit.

This magnifies the impact of the tax because it is calculated on the top line and so has greater impact on the bottom line                       ." 

Congress failed to deal with this issue before the end of the year,” DTA President and CEO Gary W. Price said. “Their last minute efforts to pass legislation to deal with the ‘fiscal cliff’ left many issues on the table without action. The fight on the medical device tax is not over. What Congress did was buy time so the new Congress can address the remaining tax and spending issues left out of the recently passed law. They didn’t deal with the debt ceiling and simply put off automatic spending cuts for two months. We will maintain our contacts with congressional members who support elimination of the device tax."

Resources

You can find a simple tool to contact your Senate and House Representatives here.

For a full IRS summary and background on the medical device tax final rule, go here.