The U.S. government began to shut down this morning as a key provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) took effect. Most Republicans, however, are still targeting a delay of the individual mandate, which requires Americans to obtain health insurance. Also still unresolved is a demand to repeal a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices that went into effect Jan. 1 as one of the funding mechanisms for the Affordable Care Act. As of mid-summer, about $1 billion was paid to the Internal Revenue Service via the medical device excise tax. Tagging Options Domain: All Sites Keywords: Obamacare Nypro read more