Senate Health Care Bill Proposes Cosmetic Procedure Tax

Once again, the way that the Democrats are pushing new taxes and fees to secure passage of a health care funding overhaul, the need to tax anything that moves was a given.

The problem is that this latest proposal (or revisiting of an earlier proposal) to tax cosmetic procedures, isn't going to generate the kind of money needed to fund the kind of health care reform the Democrats are looking for. They figure it might generate $5 billion over 10 years.

It's going to fall short. Way short.

That's the experience in New Jersey, which imposed a tax on cosmetic surgical procedures, and it has never lived up to expectations. Moreover, cosmetic surgical procedures are the one area in which costs and prices are least likely covered by insurance and therefore are more market driven.