The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has called upon their members to take action by contacting representatives in congress and voicing their opposition to the elective procedure tax included in the latest healthcare reform bill.
The society objects to the tax as being unfair to women and ineffective. According to the New York Times, “the tax would be paid by patients, but collected by doctors and clinics and forwarded to the government.”
ASPS opposes this tax as discriminatory, arbitrary and ineffective. As 86 percent of cosmetic surgery patients are female, elective surgery taxes unfairly target women. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, cosmetic surgery is no longer an exclusive luxury reserved for the very wealthy the vast majority of patients are women who work.
I wrote about the possibility of this proposal last July, when the Senate finance committee decided against it, when it was, as Politico.com says, a public relations battle that senators were not willing to wage. Apparently, things have gotten to a point where waging such a battle is necessary.
ASPS members should follow this link to take action.
http://www.capitolconnect.com/asps/login.aspx
Dr. Jonov is a cosmetic surgeon who specializes in plastic surgeries of the face, breast, and body at Seattle Plastic Surgery.
