At least on a conceptual level, it’s never been a Minnesota priority to stifle innovation. (That’s what happens too often as a result of proposing tax increases but that’s another matter for another day.) One provision in Baucuscare is a major tax increase on medical device manufacturers:

Experts have long wondered how President Obama’s drive for reform in health care would affect medical device makers. Congress is considering wholesale changes to the nation’s health care system that hospitals fear would reduce Medicare payments. A bill before the Senate Finance Committee also includes a $4 billion annual tax on medical technology companies, which the industry is lobbying to avoid.

Let’s remember that the health care reform bills raise taxes and cut Medicare spending immediately but that the expansion of Medicaid and the creation of co-ops doesn’t happen until 2013. The Baucuscare provision will have a chilling effect on companies like Medtronic and Boston Scientific because they know that they’ll get taxed extra for creating lifesaving devices.

Sen. Baucus must be asked why he’s levying an extra tax on something this important to improving people’s health. Shouldn’t the top priority of health care be to keep people as healthy as possible? Shouldn’t people ask why Sen. Baucus has put a bounty on innovative companies with this tax? After all, there’s proof that, if you want leses of something, taxing it or regulating it more will reduce that activity.

By coupling this ‘tax on innovation’ with Sen. Baucus’s unfunded Medicaid mandates and a picture starts emerging. That picture is one of legislation that undermines our highest health care priorities.

At a time when we should put a priority on innovation that improves people’s health, Sen. Baucus’s bill undermines that. At a time when we shouldn’t do anything to destabilize states’ economies, Sen. Baucus’s bill would drop the biggest unfunded mandate on states in American history.

Minnesotans of all political stripes should reject Sen. Baucus’s bill because its priorities are that misplaced. Any legislation that doesn’t lower costs while increasing Minnesota’s health is legislation that runs contrary to the principles that’ve made our state one of the healthiest states in the Union.

Technorati: Medicare, Medicaid, Unfunded Mandates, Innovation, Excise Tax, Tax Increases, Medtronics, Boston Scientific, Technology, Max Baucus, Health Care, Democrats