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Although he supports the Affordable Care Act, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind has taken the lead among House Democrats in pushing to repeal a tax in the law that affects almost all of the products made by GE Healthcare in Wisconsin and sold in the United States.

The 2.3% tax on medical devices also affects products made by a host of other companies in the state. And it may be the most vulnerable of the many taxes imposed by President Barack Obama's health care reform law as a way to bring health insurance to millions of previously uninsured Americans.

On the first day of the new Congress, Kind and Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) held a news conference to introduce a bill to repeal the tax. Similar legislation was introduced last year. But with Republicans in control of Congress, the law now stands a good chance of being passed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has identified the tax as a key target. And the House bill sponsored by Paulsen and Kind had 261 co-sponsors as of Jan. 13, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association, one of the trade groups that have lobbied for the tax's repeal.

The tax is on the sale of medical devices such as those that perform diagnostic tests for blood and urine; hardware used in joint replacements and spinal surgery; cardiology products such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators; and diagnostic imaging equipment such as computed tomography, or CT, scanners.

Other companies hit with the tax include Mortara Instruments and Gauthier Biomedical in the Milwaukee area and Accuray, the company that bought TomoTherapy in Madison.

Some products made by 3M Co., which has a large plant in Menomonie in Kind's district, also are subject to the tax.

Kind stressed that he supports repealing the tax only if Congress offsets the lost revenue with reduced spending.

"One of the hardest things we had to do in putting together the Affordable Care Act was to make sure it was completely paid for," he said.

Critics of the Affordable Care Act contended that Congress over time would chip away at the taxes imposed by the law to pay for coverage. And the medical device tax projected to raise $29 billion from the 2013 through 2022 fiscal years became a target of lobbyists immediately after the law was passed.

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Democrat Ron Kind supports Obamacare but pushes to repeal medical device tax