WASHINGTON — If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

The $848 billion health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., unveiled Wednesday includes a 5 percent tax on cosmetic procedures and surgeries. The tax, which would take effect in January, would raise an estimated $5 billion over the next decade to help pay for extending health care coverage to millions of Americans.

Plastic surgeons decried the proposal, saying the recession has battered their practices and they're just beginning to recover.

"This will be devastating to doctors who do cosmetic surgery," said Dr. Angela Cuzalina, a Tulsa, Okla., cosmetic surgeon.

"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."

Some worried that the tax would be applied to more and more procedures. "It's cosmetic surgery today, laser eye surgery tomorrow, then who knows, maybe it's the knee-replacement surgery to help you play golf," said Dr. Gary Smotrich, a plastic surgeon in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Other critics said the proposed tax also would hurt the growing number of medical spas that offer Botox and other injectables.

"Many clients are receiving Botox and fillers to maintain a competitive edge in this youth-oriented and dismal economy," said Bonnie Marting, the director of medical aesthetics at the Anushka Cosmedical Centre Spa & Salon in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Diane Archer, the director of the health care project at the Institute for America's Future, a liberal policy organization, isn't sympathetic.

"We pay taxes on virtually every good and service, and luxury goods and services should be taxed even higher," she said. "This is not a medical service. It's the equivalent of a facial or a massage. It's something that's nice to have but not necessary."

About 12 million cosmetic procedures and surgeries — which insurance typically doesn't cover — were performed last year, at a total cost of $10.3 billion, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The vast majority, 10.4 million, were minimally invasive services such as Botox injections and chemical peels. The most common surgeries were breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks, but all those procedures declined at double-digit rates last year.