The $848 billion health care bill released this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has included a 5% tax on cosmetic procedures and surgeries.

This tax will be effective from January 2010 and increase an estimated $5 billion over the next decade to help pay for extending health care coverage to millions of Americans.

The tax has infuriated the plastic surgeons who say that their practices have been deeply affected by recession and are barely recovering. Dr. Angela Cuzalina, a Tulsa cosmetic surgeon said, "This will be devastating to doctors who do cosmetic surgery, you'd be surprised how price sensitive people are to this…It’s a tax against women and the baby boomer generation having these procedures."

As per the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 12 million cosmetic procedures and surgeries were performed last year at a total cost of $10.3 billion.

The huge majority of 10.4 million were hardly invasive services like Botox injections and chemical peels. Among the most common surgeries were: breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks, but these procedures reduced at speeding rates last year.