What was in that Health Bill Anyway?

Like most people, I was interested in what congress was proposing in the healthcare reform bill. Some weeks ago, I learned that one of the ways that Congress intended to pay for reforms was to add additional taxes onto the medical equipment manufacturers. This sounded like a great idea to many people. After all, it is illegal to charge tax to consumers of medical appliances in cases where the government pays for equipment through reimbursements.
Last year, the government sliced 10% off Medicare across the board. This 10% hurt distributors. A tax on equipment and appliance manufacturers would wound manufacturers. In the end, the only way to make up the difference would have been to cheapen quality of goods because government places price caps on reimbursements.
I did not understand the gravity of the situation until I heard Malachi Mixon, President of Invacare speak about what the taxes would have done to Invare. Invare is a quality manufacturer of medical equipment located in Lorain, Ohio. He estimated the new tax would have cost his company between 12-14 million dollars. This amount of money is more than Invacare’s profit and R & D combined.
I pondered what equipment manufacturers would do if the bill passed through Congress. I wondered if companies like Invacare would have had to cut back on employees? They have about 6000 employees? After hearing about the bill, he suspended 401K contributions to employees.
Invacare is a good company and is currently the largest manufacturer of goods in Lorain County. They seem to be a well managed producer of quality products. I wondered how many other American equipment manufacturers would have had to go out of business if the bill had passed in its current state?

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