Americans for Tax Reform today released an analysis showing the impact on Massachusetts of Martha Coakley’s support for the Senate healthcare bill. Coakley is on record supporting the Senate government healthcare bill, which contains eighteen separate tax increases. One of these is a new $2 billion per year (rising to $3 billion in 2017) tax on medical device manufacturers.
Massachusetts can expect their share of this tax to be $760 million annually (rising to $1.14 billion in 2017).
According to a 2007 study by Advamed, a medical device manufacturing trade association, Massachusetts counts on medical device manufacturers for nearly 22,000 jobs. This ranks the Bay State as second in the country behind California, or fourth in the country as a percent of all state jobs. One in every 150 Massachusetts workers is employed in the medical device manufacturing industry. The average medical manufacturing employee earns about $51,000 annually (higher than the Massachusetts average of about $42,000). The state medical device manufacturing industry generated $8.2 billion in sales and paid $1.47 billion in wages
Each medical manufacturing job generates an additional 3.83 jobs in Massachusetts. Each $1.00 earned by employees of a medical device manufacturer generates $2.48 of wages elsewhere in Massachusetts. Each $1.00 of sales in medical device technology generates $2.06 in additional sales in Massachusetts.
A few examples of communities that will be affected by this new tax supported by Coakley are in the PDF.
“Martha Coakley has already been quoted as saying that taxes need to go up,” said ATR President Grover Norquist. “Raising taxes is not free—it will cost jobs. People need to ask Martha Coakley why she wants to be the deciding vote on a government healthcare and taxes bill which will endanger 22,000 high-paying jobs in Massachusetts.”
The provision can be found on page 2020, section 9009 of the bill.