CARMEL, Ind. -- A proposed levy on elective plastic surgery included in the current health care reform proposal has angered some central Indiana doctors and patients.

Referred to as the "Botax," the White House and Senate Democrats have turned to a proposal to tax breast implants, tummy tucks, wrinkle-smoothing injections and other procedures by 5 percent as they search for ways to pay for costly health care overhaul plans.

Vanity was an easy target as lawmakers scraped for cash for the nearly $1 trillion plan to expand health care to millions of Americans who lack insurance, but it's no joke to the drug makers and people who perform the cosmetic nips and tucks.

Carmel plastic surgeon Dr. Timothy Gillum, who said 84 percent of his patients are women, called the proposed tax sexist.

"It's highly discriminatory against women," he told 6News' Stacia Matthews. "It very well may be that 5 percent is just enough of a deterrent to take away something that is very much their right to pursue in terms of rejuvenation and feeling better about themselves."

Susan Park is paying Gillum $6,000 to perform a mini facelift she said she needs to stay competitive in the work place.

The proposed 5 percent tax would raise the price tag of the procedure to $6,300.

"Maybe they should do the junk food tax and what I consider the luxury tax, and that would be Viagra," she said. "It absolutely (hurts women). I don't think it could be looked at any other way."

Accounts vary on who first dreamed up the "Botax." It came out of a late-July meeting on health care that included Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee chairman, and Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, although neither man's staff acknowledges having hatched the scheme.

In the end, Reid revived it simply because "we needed money to make the bill work," his spokesman Jim Manley said.

Now that it's in the Senate legislation, plastic surgeons and the cosmetic product industry are dusting off their arguments against it.