Gastric bypass patients face tax from Illinois bill 2.27.05

A Illinois bill which proposes a cosmetic surgery tax to fund stem cell research could end up costing gastric bypass patients. While gastric bypass surgery itself is not taxed follow up procedures deemed as cosmetic surgery would be taxed. Cosmetic surgery is usually need following a gastric bypass operation because of the excess skin following weight loss.

"Doctors and patients from across Illinois today told Illinois lawmakers that a proposed six percent tax on cosmetic surgery patients to fund stem cell research is fiscally unsound and inadequate, medically and ethically ambiguous and sets a dangerous precedent for taxing elective medical procedures."

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