Republican Congressional candidate Lisa Wilson Foley Thursday urged Connecticut’s delegation to support repeal of a tax on various medical equipment devices.

"We need to cut the cost of medical care and this is a good first step toward that goal," said Wilson Foley, a business owner who operates several health care companies. "Lifting this tax burden will also help our health care economy where the next generation of jobs will be created."

The excise tax was one of the many details in the 2,054 page Affordable Health Care Act passed in 2009 on a straight Democrat party-line vote. Known as the "Heart Attack Tax," this component of Obamacare will impose a 2.3 percent tax on everything from defibrillators to pacemakers to MRI scanners. This tax will be passed down to consumers who will ultimately bear the brunt of the cost, again driving up the cost of care. It is estimated that up to 40,000 medical industry jobs could be at risk if this tax goes into law.

"The tax increase will not only affect health care system, but it will severely damage another badly damaged part of our economy – job creators," said Wilson Foley. "Less innovation will result in less jobs, less opportunity and more lay-offs. In an already struggling economy, more jobs will go overseas and more American’s will be out of work."

In past reports, medical device manufacturing has been segmented as a targeted industry for growth here in Connecticut. Wilson Foley hoped all members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation and U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and Joseph Lieberman, I-CT, will support this bi-partisan bill as it moves through the House and Senate.

"This would be an important first step in using positive market forces to provide state-of-the-art technology, reduce costs to consumers and create jobs," said Wilson Foley. "We need to start creating jobs through common sense, not a top-down government approach."