Acquisitions (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	12 Months Ended			0 Months Ended			12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2013 Reporting_Unit	Dec. 31, 2012 Reporting_Unit	Dec. 31, 2011 Reporting_Unit	Jun. 30, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Jun. 23, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Jun. 21, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Dec. 31, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Dec. 31, 2013 Others Business	Dec. 31, 2012 Others Business	Dec. 31, 2011 Others Business
Business Acquisition, Contingent Consideration [Line Items]
Number of businesses acquired								14	14	13
Net cash consideration	$ 957,200,000	$ 1,796,800,000	$ 6,210,800,000	$ 5,500,000,000				$ 957,000,000	$ 1,800,000,000	$ 669,000,000
Number of segments	5	5	5
Aggregate annual sales of additional businesses for last annual period							3,700,000,000	300,000,000	666,000,000	325,000,000
Goodwill	584,700,000	1,015,700,000	4,164,700,000				3,745,800,000			418,900,000
Net cash acquired				450,000,000
Fair value of debt at acquisition date				1,600,000,000
Cash paid on business acquisition, available cash				2,300,000,000
Net proceeds from underwritten public offering of the Company's common stock	177,400,000	212,000,000	1,112,500,000			966,000,000
Net proceeds from debt					1,800,000,000
Transaction related costs			57,000,000
Impact of pre-tax charges reflected in earnings			$ 117,000,000