Pundits are calling it the “Botax” but the reality of electric plastic surgery procedures being taxed in New Jersey may soon become a nationwide idea. Congress is looking into the tax on cosmetic surgeries, which is said to be a $12 billion industry, as a way to help pay for the healthcare overhaul. Elective cosmetic surgeries might be taxed, while it’s unlikely that medically necessary or less elective surgeries would fall into the same category. Supporters of the plan say that these elective plastic surgery taxes could help pay for the life and death medical treatments of others while critics of the plan aren’t sure if the tax revenue would be worthwhile.

There’s no word on exactly how much the tax would be, but numbers from 5% to 10% have been thrown around as possibilities. Some members of congress have suggested that the tax on elective cosmetic surgeries would essentially amount to nothing more than a “luxury” tax on expensive procedures, though critics argue that it is “normal” people of modest means who often save up to pay for the majority of the plastic surgery procedures done in the United States.

Critics of the idea, such as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, argue that it’s unfair to tax some fields of business more than others. One plastic surgeon who is against the proposal has stated that his average patient is a middle class woman between the ages 19-64 who makes about $50,000 a year. Fueling the argument against implementing a plastic surgery tax is the one state that actually already has a tax in place: New Jersey.

New Jersey implemented a 6% tax on most elective cosmetic surgeries in 2004 and it has not raised as much money as initially hoped. The unpopular New Jersey cosmetic surgery tax has been close to being overturned several times, but has always remained law by several close votes.

There is yet no word on what would happen to the New Jersey plastic surgery tax if a national plastic surgery taxation plan was put into place. Other states are also looking at New Jersey’s plastic surgery tax model and considering implementing the same tax, even if the tax does not become nationwide.