By Richard Rubin and Kathleen Hunter - 2012-06-06T04:01:43Z

Senate Democrats from states including Minnesota and Pennsylvania are caught between their support for medical-device industries and their partys reluctance to make major changes to the 2010 health-care law.

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week to repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax for medical devices. To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, the vote is part of a Republican attack on the health law. To Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat seeking a second term, the repeal is necessary to prevent harm to an industry that provides jobs in her state.

Senator Klobuchar is faced with a difficult choice between voting the kind of narrow particularistic interest of industry in her state versus voting her personal and partisan platform, said Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota.

Klobuchar, first elected in 2006, has been a knight in shining armor for a home-state industry that includes St. Jude Medical Inc. and Medtronic Inc. (MDT), Jacobs said. Medtronics employees have been the seventh-largest contributors to Klobuchars campaign this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Device companies have been lobbying to undo the tax, and the House repeal bill sponsored by Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen is co-sponsored by more than 55 percent of the House.

Congress included the tax in the 2010 health-care law as a way to help pay for expansion of health insurance coverage. The 2.3 percent excise tax will be levied on devices such as coronary stents and hip implants that arent sold directly to consumers.

Similar fees and taxes were levied on health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and the indoor tanning industry. The law passed without a single Republican vote, and the party has been trying to undo it since, even as the Supreme Court considers its constitutionality.

Efforts to pick apart the health-care legislation are finding favor with some Democrats who agreed to the measure despite misgivings about individual provisions.

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said hes looking for ways to force a vote on the issue.

See the original post:

U.S. Medical Device Backers Face Tough Health Care Vote