The Economics of Buttock Implants

JC of the Emirates Economist has sent me this link about buttock implants and lifts. It seems that sometimes when people have dramatic weight loss, their buttocks become quite flat, and I gather some people find flat buttocks unattractive. To fix the flatness, they're willing to spend good money on plastic surgery:

Plastic surgeons have adapted standard techniques and are developing new ones to address patients' desire for firmer, higher, rounder buttocks. Innovations in buttock augmentation surgery will be discussed by leading experts at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) in New Orleans.

...According to ASAPS 2004 statistics, Americans had over 2,100 buttock augmentation procedures and nearly 6,000 buttock lifts last year.

The meeting will feature a panel on May 3rd, discussing grafts vs. implants, along with:

• Buttock Implants -- Aesthetic Evaluation, Technical Approach and Avoidance of Complication: Tuesday, May 3, 2:45 p.m.
• Buttock Augmentation Using Solid Silicone Implants: Tuesday, May 3, 4:15 p.m.
• "Universal" and Ethnic Ideals of Beautiful Buttocks; How to Create Them Surgically: Tuesday, May 3, 4:23 p.m. [note: eight minutes allowed for this topic and the previous one!]
• Autoposthesis Buttock Augmentation: Tuesday, May 3, 4:31 p.m.

One interesting question is what portion, if any, of the procedures would be covered by different health plans. Even co-insurance lowers the effective price to the patient, and thus would increase the quantity demanded.