What Will Obama's Health Care Bill Do To Liposuction?

Liposuction (also referred to as lipoplasty and suction lipectomy) is a huge business in America

. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans undergo the procedure. Given that each of these surgeries cost thousands of dollars, the lipoplasty business is easily worth hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars every year. However, lipoplasty is only a small part of the overall cosmetic surgery business, which took in over 10 billion dollars last year (even during a recession).

Cosmetic surgeons are feeling a little spooked right now, though, because of some provisions in the new $848 billion dollar health care being examined.

Among other things, the bill includes a 5 percent tax on cosmetic procedures and surgeries. This tax, which is referred to by some as the "botax," is expected to raise somewhere around $5 billion dollars throughout the next decade. Lawmakers hope that this additional money will help to extend healthcare coverage to more of the American populace.

Some surgeons view this as just one step in a governmental move to tax an increasing number of health services and surgeries. One New Jersey surgeon stated, "it's cosmetic surgery today, laser eye surgery tomorrow, then who knows maybe it's the knee-replacement surgery to help you play golf."

The plastic surgeons similarly deny that the government is taxing the rich by having a tax on cosmetic procedures. They state that an increasingly large number of middle class people are getting cosmetic enhancement, including people who are looking to improve their appearance in an attempt to boost their chances of getting and retaining their jobs in a workplace that often favors the young.

Currently, only one state in the U.S. has a tax on cosmetic procedures. Since 2005, the state has had a 6 percent tax on all cosmetic procedures and surgeries. This levy was expected to bring in over 20 million dollars per year for the state. However, it has only brought in around 11 million per year. One reason for this difference in the projected and actual money is that a large number of patients leave the state so that they can get their cosmetic surgeries elsewhere.

Hopefully, this increase in the prices of American cosmetic surgery will not fuel the growing trend of cosmetic surgery tourism, in which Americans leave the country for cheaper (and often unsafe) liposuction elsewhere.

It remains to be seen exactly which surgeries and procedures will be counted under the law, and exactly what the effects will be. However, if the bill passes, there is a good chance that the field of lipoplasty could be significantly changed.

by: Christian Heftel

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