Young Touts Medical Device Tax Repeal, Tobacco Age Increase In Spending Deal

U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) is touting a couple provisions he helped get into a federal spending deal expected to pass Congress this week.

The bipartisan spending deal includes a provision that permanently repeals a tax on medical devices – a major industry in Indiana. Young says he’s been pushing for that for nearly a decade.

“This 2.3 percent tax on sales … inhibited innovation and created a great threat to the livelihoods of some very well-paid manufacturing workers and their families,” Young says.

The tax was a major source of funding for the Affordable Care Act – and, thus, programs like the Healthy Indiana Plan.

The federal spending deal also raises the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21. Young says the federal measure would still require states like Indiana to raise the age to comply.

Legislative leaders of both parties and the governor have already announced their intention to push for the age increase in the 2020 session.

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