The plan offered for overhauling the American health-care
system by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) relies in part on revenues generated from a
broad tax on FDA-regulated medical devices that Baucus predicts will generate
$4 billion a year. Unfortunately for
Baucus, he didn't bother to check the definition of "medical device" before
proposing a tax on them. It turns out
that such staples as tampons, Q-tips, condoms, and contact-lens solution
qualify as Class I medical devices, which would have applied what Amanda
Carpenter at the Washington
Times called a "mommy tax" that would have hit women
disproportionately. Baucus quickly
revised his proposal to exempt commercially-available products under $100
dollars and all Class I devices from the tax.
Still, mommies - and prospective mommies - have plenty to fear
from Baucus' tax. In perusing the FDA's list of
medical devices, it contains over 2900 potential Class II and higher items
on which to impose this excise tax. More
than a few relate to obstetrics, which will compound costs on the act of giving
birth. A few examples:
-
Fetal Doppler ultrasound
-
Fetal blood-sampling endoscope
-
Fetal acoustical holograph
-
Fetal cardiac and Doppler ultrasound monitors
-
Home fetal heart-rate monitor
-
Fetal cell sample kits
It doesn't end when the baby arrives, either. Incubators will get taxed, as will perinatal
monitors and neonatal phototherapy units.
Babies will get a good start on life as an American citizen by getting
hit with taxes even before birth. And if
working moms want to raise their infants on breast milk, the powered breast
pump will get taxed as well, as Carpenter notes. For that matter, so do mammograms.
So should we call this the Mommy Tax? Unfortunately, the list goes on and on, and
it appears to impact seniors most of all.
For instance, dentures will get taxed, whether partials or full
sets. Prostheses of a wide variety
qualify for the tax, including hip and knee replacements, commonly used by
older Americans to improve mobility.
Pacemakers and their test equipment also qualify, as well as the
unpleasant-sounding "mechanical/hydraulic incontinence device."
For those who think that taxes are more like pulling teeth,
there's plenty in the list on which to chew.
Dental X-rays will get more expensive as the federal government takes a
bite out of your teeth. So will dental
cement, amalgam for fillings, dental lasers, and dental surgical kits.
There are plenty more examples, some obvious, some not. Extended-wear contact lenses qualify for the
tax, which perhaps most people would not immediately picture when it comes to
"medical devices." Powered wheelchairs
will get taxed, as will heart valves and insulin pumps, which keep people alive
and participating in society.
Some are more ridiculous simply because of the eventual victim
of the tax. For instance, just about
everything associated with dialysis treatment will get taxed except for the
saline solution used in the process. Who
pays the tax? Dialysis centers and hospitals
who buy the equipment and supplies, but they pass the cost to the eventual
payer, which is ... Medicare. Under rules
established for decades, Medicare covers all end-stage renal disease (ESRD)
treatment, especially dialysis and kidney transplants. The federal government will essentially tax
itself until a patient gets a transplant - and the transport container for the
kidney will also carry Baucus' tax.
Instead of making health care more affordable, the Baucus plan
raises the price on just about every part of treatment that goes farther than a
routine checkup. The price jump should
enrage every consumer in the American medical system - but it won't. Ironically, the very reason we have a cost
problem in our system will also allow Baucus and his allies off the hook for
making treatment more expensive.
The true problem in the American health-care system is a lack
of pricing transparency to the consumer.
We don't pay the bills for our medical care; we pay premiums, but we
don't pay the doctor or hospital directly except for artificially determined
co-pays. When the costs of providing the
care go up, our insurers feel the pinch, and eventually that translates
into higher premiums - but the connection between receiving goods and services
and the pricing pressure doesn't exist.
When we pay more for contact lenses and breast pumps at the
cash register, we will see the impact of the Baucus plan, but for the most
part, providers pay these taxes directly and pass them on to the people who pay
for our medical care. We won't see the
connection between these taxes and rising costs any more than we do with
overuse today.
Baucus proposes to solve the problem of rising health-care
costs by forcing prices higher, and the problem of opacity in the pricing
process by making it more opaque. That's
not a Mommy Tax, or a Seniors Tax, but a Birth Tax - or more appropriately, a
Life Tax that starts at conception and doesn't expire until we do.
Edward Morrissey's Bio
Ed Morrissey writes for Hot Air, where he also has a daily political talk show. Ed has written for the Washington Post, the New York Post, the New York Sun, and has made numerous television and radio appearances. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, son, and two granddaughters.
Posted
10-08-2009 12:01 AM
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