Read more: Local, Economy, Health Care Bill, Tanning Salon, Tax Proposal
The bill calls for a 10% tax on tanning services to help pay for expanding health care.
Opposition to one portion of the health care bill is more than skin deep. The bill calls for a 10% tax on tanning services to help pay for expanding health care.
It's ironic when you consider why Chris Popoff and her husband purchased the Oceania Tanning Salon a couple of months ago. "Because we wanted help paying our health insurance," Chris said.
Now, their tanning operation may end up being taxed to help pay for other people's health insurance. And here's another irony. Popoff is a big supporter of health care reform. "I was one of the ones that tried to promote it with my friends."
But Popoff says it's unfair to pay for that reform by taxing middle class tanning salon owners, many of whom, she says, would not be able to survive. "Sadly, a lot of tanning salons are owned by women and so it's going to put them right out of business," Chris said.
An earlier version of the health care bill would have taxed cosmetic surgery procedures to pay for reform. Popoff believes that provision was replaced by the tanning tax, mostly because the cosmetic surgery industry has more money to spend on lobbying Congress.
Popoff and her husband plan on joining other salon operators in writing Congress to remove the tanning tax provision, but she doubts it will do much good. Though Popoff still favors health care reform, she says Congress tried to rush the bill through too quickly. "I don't think they've thought about things enough, and I don't think it's turning out to be what a lot of us had hoped that it would be."
We talked to several other local tanning salon owners who said they would just have to pass the cost of the tax along to their customers, many of whom are already struggling due to the weak economy.
The proposed 10% tax in indoor tanning services would raise nearly $3 billion for the uninsured.
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