U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., joined 19 other senators in introducing bipartisan legislation to repeal the punitive medical device tax, which was enacted as a part of President Obama’s healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The 2.3 percent tax on medical devices that range from tongue depressors to joint replacements and surgical tools took effect in January 2013, but it has been suspended since Jan. 1, 2016. The current moratorium is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2019, S.692, would go a step further and permanently eliminate the medical device tax.

“There is a reason the medical device tax has been suspended twice. It is past time to end it once and for all to protect patients, jobs and the innovations that are stifled when it is in effect,” said Isakson. “I’m proud to again introduce this measure to end this harmful tax.”

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 29,000 jobs were lost in the industry while the tax was in effect from 2013 to 2015, and there was an estimated $34 million reduction in the industry’s research and development efforts, resulting in a loss of new innovations that could have improved patients’ lives and resulted in lower overall costs for patients’ medical care.

Senators Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., led the legislation in the Senate.