Posted by Joshua Lipana
I recently asked Dr. Paul Hsieh, Forbes.com columnist, and co-funder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, what he thought about President Obama’s medical-device tax. Here is Dr. Hsieh’s response:
“The medical device tax is one of the most pernicious parts of ObamaCare, because it’s basically a tax on future life-saving innovation. The tax will cost both American jobs and American lives.
“Many device manufacturers operate on very thin economic margins. Hence, a seemingly small 2.3% tax could mean the difference between a company opening a new factory — or being forced to close one. Or it could mean the difference between a new device that saves thousands of lives reaching the market in 2 years — or 10 years (if ever).
“Plus, the nature of the tax makes it very difficult for people to imagine the innovations that were never developed or the deaths that could have been prevented if the tax had not been imposed.
“Fortunately, there are some politicians in both major political parties who wish to repeal the medical device tax. Although I’d prefer a full repeal of ObamaCare, this isn’t going to happen anytime soon. But in the meantime, we can still encourage and support lawmakers who want to repeal parts of ObamaCare. Repealing the medical device tax would be a great place to start.”
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Dr. Hsieh has also written two op-eds about the medical-device tax:
“The Federal Government’s War On Medical Innovation”
Forbes, 8/8/2012
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/08/08/the-federal-governments-war-on-medical-innovation/
“The Deadly Tax on Medical Innovation”
PJ Media, 4/11/2010
http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-deadly-tax-on-medical-innovation/?singlepage=true
Dr. Paul Hsieh is an excellent champion of freedom in medicine. I am grateful for his work, and I encourage you all to check out more of it.
Click here for a general list of his articles.
Posted by Joshua Lipana
I recently asked Alex Epstein, founder and director of the Center for Industrial Progress, what he thought about President Obama’s medical-device tax. Here is Mr. Epstein’s response:
“This tax is just one more example of how government-controlled health care punishes medical innovators.”
Posted by Joshua Lipana
“I’m delighted to announce that Joshua Lipana’s most recent CT Scan shows across-the-board improvements, including ‘Near complete resolution of mediastinal abnormality.’ What was a five-inch by two-inch tumor in Joshua’s chest has been reduced to scar tissue. This combined with tests showing Joshua’s bone marrow to be cancer-free means that his cancer is, by all accounts, in remission.
“Joshua, his doctors, modern technology, and the men and women who make it possible have beaten Joshua’s rare and aggressive cancer (T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma). Writing of his own part in beating this monster, Joshua says, ‘I’m rarer and more aggressive than that rare and aggressive cancer.’ Indeed he is.”
—Craig Biddle
Read the whole thing here: http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php/2013/01/joshua-lipana-his-doctors-and-modern-technology-beat-cancer/
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Craig Biddle has been one of the most supportive individuals in my victorious fight against cancer.
I am glad I am alive. I am glad I can continue the honor of working with Craig Biddle.
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I am a cancer survivor. I am so happy I can finally call myself that.
(First published in TOS Blog, January 6, 2013)
Kudos to the 800 Companies Demanding a Repeal of the Medical-Device Tax
By Joshua Lipana
Fox Business reports that executives from more than 800 companies and medical-groups are demanding a repeal to the medical-device tax. Here are some excerpts from their letter to the senate demanding its repeal and elucidating why the tax will “adversely impact patient care and innovation, and will substantially increase the costs of health care.”
The United States is the world leader in manufacturing life-saving and life-enhancing treatments, and the industry is an important engine for economic growth. The industry employs more than 400,000 workers nationwide; generates approximately $25 billion in payroll; pays out salaries that are 40 percent more than the national average ($58,000 vs. $42,000); and invests nearly $10 billion in research and development (R&D) annually. The industry is fueled by innovative companies, the majority of which are small businesses with 80 percent of companies having fewer than 50 employees and 98 percent with fewer than 500 employees. . . .
The tax will stifle innovation and cost thousands of high-paying jobs. It will increase the effective tax rate for many medical technology companies, thereby reducing financial resources that should be used for R&D, clinical trials and investments in manufacturing. The impact will be especially hard on smaller companies whose innovations are not immediately profitable. . . .
We must do all we can to encourage and promote research, development, investment and innovation. Instead, increased taxes, such as this one on the medical device industry, coupled with the increased regulatory uncertainty the industry also faces, will lead to further job losses, hinder the development of breakthrough treatments and delay patient access to medical technology.
We respectfully request timely action on legislation to repeal this over $30 billion excise tax.
Read the whole letter here.
Kudos to the businessmen and medical personnel standing up against this immoral and impractical tax. All life-loving Americans should follow suit and demand the repeal of the medical-device tax—and ultimately Obamacare.
Posted by Joshua Lipana
From MD Anderson’s Focused on Health:
Baking for the holidays? Good news: it’s possible to add some cancer-fighting power to your favorite sweets — without sacrificing flavor.
All it takes is a little dark chocolate.
That’s because the antioxidants in dark chocolate help protect the body from cancer more than any other chocolate.
Here’s the reason: chocolate’s antioxidants come from chemicals called flavonoids, which occur naturally in the plant-based cacao bean. These beans are roasted, ground and processed to make different chocolate products. And, processing reduces the amount of cacao in the final chocolate product. . . .
Since chocolate gets its cancer-fighting power from cacao, choose dark chocolate with a high percent of cacao. The higher the percent, the darker the chocolate — and the more flavonoids you’ll get.
Aim for chocolate with at least 65% cacao. You can usually find the percentage of cacao on the front of the package.
I myself eat dark chocolate with at least 71% cacao. This is the minimum recommended in the book, Anticancer: A New of Life.
(First published in TOS Blog, December 10, 2012)
Medical Device Tax: Immoral and Impractical
By Joshua Lipana
Fox Business’s Elizabeth MacDonald writes, “Starting January 1, medical-device makers must pay a new 2.3% excise tax on sales, regardless if they make a profit, to raise $30 billion over the next decade to pay for health reform”—that is, ObamaCare.
Already, venture capital funding in the medical device industry in the third quarter plunged “to the lowest dollar level since 2004,” with just $434 million going into a paltry 65 deals, says a new report from consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. . . .
The prospect of the new excise tax on gross sales is the biggest cause of this collapse in venture capital investments in the medical-device sector, Allison Giles, a top executive at Cook Medical, the world’s largest privately owned medical-device company, in Bloomington, Indiana, tells FOX Business.
The federal government will now be taking $30 billion out of the industry that develops new treatments to limit patient deaths and suffering.
Like every productive person, businessmen in the medical-device industry have a moral right to keep and use the products of their efforts. It is bad enough that government loots the earnings of these productive men and women who provide valuable goods that enhance and save lives. That the government, via ObamaCare, now aims to loot more of their money—and to do so when their companies haven’t even made a profit—is obscene.
In addition to and because of this expanded violation of rights, companies must cut back on innovating and hiring—and they must start now. As Eric Claude, general manager of MPR Associates, explains:
Our business is being adversely impacted by the impending tax. We employ nearly 200 people in quality high-tech science and engineering jobs providing outsourced research and development services to medical device manufacturers across the country. The prospect of the device tax taking effect next year is causing our customers to cut back on R&D spending, directly impacting our business. As a result, I am being forced to scale back our hiring plan. Not only will the device tax adversely impact innovation in an industry in which the US has been a global leader, it is impacting U.S. businesses and U.S. jobs right now, today.
This is yet another instance of the fact that ObamaCare is as impractical as it is immoral—and of why all life-loving Americans morally must demand its repeal.
From Science Daily (Oct. 18, 2012):
“Our study showed that drinking six cups of green tea affected biomarkers in prostate tissue at the time of surgery,” said Susanne M. Henning, Ph.D., R.D., adjunct professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. “This research offers new insights into the mechanisms by which green tea consumption may reduce the risk for prostate cancer by opposing processes such as inflammation, which are associated with prostate cancer growth.”
Prior epidemiological data have been inconclusive about the relationship between green tea and prostate cancer. However, one recent intervention study conducted in Italy revealed that men with a precursor to prostate cancer called prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia who consumed a green tea extract reduced their risk for progression to prostate cancer.
Another data point on the benefits of drinking green tea.
