To help fund the $940 billion cost of the health care overhaul, a 10 percent increase will be charged to all customers of indoor tanning salons.
The initiative is expected to generate $2.7 million during the next 10 years, according to a CNNmoney.com report.
This section of the health care bill personally affects tanning businesses in the city starting July 1, when the tanning tax will go into effect. Spray tanning, tanning lotions and other sunless tanning products are not included in the tax, only electronic products designed for tanning that use one or more ultraviolet lamps between 200 and 40 nanometers.
Heat Tanning Salon manager Brian Fite said he is unsure of how the tanning tax will affect his family-run business.
“I would like to say that it will not really affect us all too much because a 10 percent tax makes a 40 dollar tanning package increase by only four dollars,” Fite said. “However, I can’t say that right now because there really is no way of knowing until it goes into effect.”
Fite said the tanning tax will require his mother, who keeps track of all the records, to be more careful with the books and filling out the federal forms.
“The tanning tax replaced the tax that was going to be put on cosmetic surgery,” he said. “Tanning was singled out very suddenly, so we obviously were not represented enough during the creation of the health care reform bill.”
Fite said he felt singled out from this portion of the bill that came out of the blue.
“A lot of tanning salons in this area are family owned,” he said. “I know a lot of us are feeling singled out and targeted by this new initiative for the government to make more money.”
According to the Academy of Dermatology, indoor tanning before the age of 35 causes a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which is becoming more common in teenagers; nearly 2.3 million teens tan every year. Fite said this was a way for the government to put a tax on tanning similar to the sin tax put on alcohol and cigarettes because of the ‘negative effects’ of tanning.
“What people don’t understand is that a main factor of skin cancer is genetics. The FDA approved tanning in 1979, and now they’re going back and saying it isn’t healthy. Well, they’ve had 30 years to ban it, and they still haven’t,” he said. “Tanning does not cause skin cancer, over-exposure and burning does.”
Junior Angela Rini thinks the tax will end up hurting the local tanning businesses.
“I heard about this tax just the other day, and I think it’s ridiculous,” she said. “Tanning salons are already pushing it because one of the associates is always telling you to buy that lotion and upgrade to this level tanning bed. A tanning package is about 40 dollars, plus 50 dollars if you get the good lotion.”
Rini said it is already difficult for students to afford tanning, and although the tax increase may not be very high, it will prevent some students from going tanning.
“The raise in prices of tanning packages may only be about five dollars, but that is a lot of money to college students,” she said. “We’re at school about nine months out of the year, so adding five dollars every month adds up to an extra 50 dollars throughout the entire school year. I think students will get over the hype of tanning and eventually everyone will just stop going altogether.”
