Kathy Cronkhite is one of those patients. She wanted to get Botox now before she ended up paying more.
"I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Yeah, it eliminates my wrinkles but what it also does is it eliminates my headaches I get. I have a metal plate in my neck and I get migraine headaches on a regular basis," she said.
Cronkhite said if she didn't get Botox injections, she would have to take prescription pain medicine. If the tax is implemented, Cronkhite said she may end up suffering.
"I'm going to have to scrimp and save even more, and I may not be able to afford it," she said.
Shah thinks one of the biggest misconceptions about plastic surgery is that only wealthy people go under the knife.
"Government bureaucracy, they thought this actually would target the upper class or upper middle class but in reality those are not the patients that make up the majority of cosmetic surgery," said Shah.
Research has shown many patients seeking cosmetic surgery are working middle class moms who save for months or even years for surgery.
Dr. Malcom Roth, vice president for health policy and advocacy at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said lawmakers are targeting the wrong group.
"About 80 percent of our patients having cosmetic surgery are female, so this would be a discriminatory act against women," said Roth.
Roth also said a similar tax was imposed in New Jersey in 2004, however, it was unsuccessful. He said it only brought in 25 percent of the funds lawmakers expected.
Now many doctors hope lawmakers take a closer look at how little the tax helped New Jersey and take a look at the bigger picture.
"There is going to be a ripple effect if there is a tax on plastic surgery because where do you stop? Getting your hair colored is not a medical necessity but it is something that makes you feel good about yourself. "If you tax that, how fair would that be," said Shah. |
