Editorial: "The True Cost"
Health-care freebies turn out to have significant price tag
Excerpts from the Columbus Dispatch
March 26, 2012
"A tax on medical devices and equipment tucked into the 2,400-page 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act illustrates the negative impact the legislation is already having on the U.S. economy. Quite simply, nothing is free.
"Many Democrats were hiding in the weeds Friday as the unpopular health-care overhaul marked its second anniversary, though a few people touted the many 'free' services it is providing. But the 2.3 percent tax, part of $500 billion in new taxes that make up the funding mechanism for these 'freebies,' is already killing jobs and hurting U.S. businesses...
"In Ohio, about 20,000 workers are employed by medical-device and equipment manufacturers. A few large companies are affected...But industry-wide, 80 percent of these businesses have fewer than 50 employees. Since the tax is on all revenue, not profits, small companies are particularly worried that they'll be put out of business by it...
"The U.S. leads the world in medical-device manufacturing. These companies make devices that need to meet the highest standards of purity and safety. The jobs lost here and elsewhere are the true cost of the 'free' health care some think they're getting from the health-care overhaul."
Click Here To Read The Full Op-Ed: http://bit.ly/GNMBjL
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