In another sign of Washington, D.C.,’s scatter shot approach to policy and fiscal management, it seems we will now have a tax on Botox. Yes, we’ll dig our way out of our indecent indebtedness by gouging people who occasionally pay up to get rid of their crow’s feet. As DJN colleague Martin Vaughan reports, Senate Democrats want to slap a 5% excise tax on optional cosmetic procedures to help fund health-care reform. This would raise about $5.8 billion over a decade in order to help defray some of the $849 billion bill. Right. it’s a sloppy, cynical move – and it bodes ill.DJN colleague Jon Kamp says shares of Allergan and Medicis fell today on the news. “What’s next? Are we going to tax people who color their hair?” asked Jonah Shacknai, chairman and CEO of Medicis. Allergan, for its part, called the tax a “random hit on an easy target that is only punitive and not corrective.” The tax would kick in next year but there are procedural hurdles before that can happen: the Senate has to pass the bill, then it has to survive reconciliation with a House bill that doesn’t include such a tax, and finally it would need President Obama’s signature. Allergan, it seems, has the most to lose if customers, unwilling to pay the tax on top of out-of-pocket fees, walk away, wrinkles and all.
November 19, 2009
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