We cannot believe that this stupid provision is back again
in the Senate version of the health bill. Senate majority leader Harry Reid stuck in the Botax again: he wants a 5% tax on all plastic surgery and procedures, including Botox, Restalyne and facials. This got killed in the House version, but like the zombie that just won't die in the horror movie -- it's back.
Say hello to the nose job tax.
To raise money for the health overhaul, Democrats are proposing a new 5% tax on elective cosmetic procedures. The tax was a surprise addition to the sweeping 2,074-page bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled late Wednesday. It generates $5 billion over a decade for the plan, which is expected to cost $849 billion over a decade.
The tax would fall on the individuals who undergo the procedures. If they don’t pay it when they’re billed for their surgery, then it falls to the provider who performed the procedure.
Not all cosmetic surgeries would get taxed. According to the bill, the tax would only apply if the surgery “is not necessary to ameliorate a deformity arising from, or directly related to, a congenital abnormality, a personal injury resulting from an accident or trauma, or disfiguring disease.” It would take effect Jan. 1.
The majority of people who get cosmetic surgery are not wealthy, according to the most recent data. Most people save up to have a nose job or erase some wrinkles so they can compete in a youth-obsessed job market that actively discriminates against older workers. It's also anti-woman, since the majority of plastic surgery and procedure patients are women. As for the doctors, well, many say that between the recession and the high cost of malpractice insurance that this extra tax will be the last straw.
New Jersey recently enacted such a tax and guess what the result has been? The patients get their procedures done in New York or Philadelphia. Just say no to the Botax.
