Health care reform could include a tummy-tuck tax

The ongoing debate over health care reform is getting nipped and tucked, but not in the way you might expect. To make the new bill work, Congress has to find a way to pay the $848 billion tab.

The Senate has come up with $5.8 billion toward that goal -- thanks to proposed levies on lunchtime lipo, tummy tucks and eyelifts. A 5% excise tax on elective cosmetic surgery would kick in on Jan. 1, 2010, if the Senate version is adopted. But the cosmetic surgery industry is doing its best to keep that from happening.