Beginning on January 1, 2013, medical device manufacturers will have to pay a 2.3% tax on the gross income from many of their products.

The excise tax is on the medical device manufacturers and importers (who) will now have access to 30 million new customers due to the health care law.

~ Treasury Department spokeswoman, Sabrina Siddiqui

I’m not sure what is meant by this statement.  She appears to be justifying the new law in hopes that these companies won’t see it as the tax problem that it is.  She appears to be saying that the new tax should not be difficult to pay since medical device makers will have so much more business under Obamacare.

The new tax does not cover over-the-counter medical products such as hearing aids, eyeglasses, or cotton swabs.  It mostly applies to devices used by doctors and nurses inside medical facilities. There seems to be some ambiguity in the law with respect to items that could be considered medical or non-medical, such as latex gloves. Job security for the tax attorney, I suppose.