President Barack Obama released his budget plan for 2016 earlier this year, and House Republicans introduced a separate budget proposal last week, according to a Zacks report published on Nasdaq.
The proposals have very different plans for healthcare. So which one should medtech giants root for?
Here are five key notes on President Obama's 2016 budget plan:
1. It repeals the automatic spending cuts form sequestration by cutting inefficient spending and closing tax loopholes.
2. The plan also attempts to reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion, primarily through health program, tax code and immigration reforms.
3. The budget includes "robust investments" for research and development to promote new products, capabilities and industries for sustainable growth, including $31.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health to support biomedical research.
4. The Food and Drug Administration requested within the plan $4.9 billion to "protect and promote public health" which is up 9 percent over the fiscal 2015 budget.
5. There would be $1 billion set aside for biomedical research.
Here are five key notes on the Republican "Balanced Budget" plan:
1. It would repeal the Affordable Care Act entirely, including all taxes, regulations and mandates, according to the report.
2. The medical device excise tax would be repealed, costing around $26 billion through 2024, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
3. There are only a few large firms that account for most of the medical device industry revenues in the United States, according to the report.
4. The plan would put Medicare savings toward improving Medicare solvency.
5. The ACA's Medicaid expansion would be repealed to "help focus on its core mission of serving the neediest."
While many in the medical device industry would like to see the medical device excise tax taken away, there could be long-term ramifications. "In the event of the tax being repealed, this group is apprehensive about how the revenue loss might impact the overall economy, given existing concerns about the fiscal deficit," according to the Zacks report.