Congress should apply tanning tax to all beds, salons

Tucked into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were numerous provisions, initiatives and regulations.

They ranged from mandating new community health centers to making insurers allow dependent children to stay on their parents’ health care plan until they are 26.

Not only will government now be more transparent when it comes to health care, but insurers cannot continue practices such as dropping policyholders when they get sick.

Like any law of great importance, this costs big bucks. Because the act is estimated to run more than $940 billion, the government had to come up with some way to make ends meet.

So, as part of its solution, Congress found an industry responsible for skin cancer, premature skin aging and eye damage and slapped a 10 percent tax on its services.

Logistically, it makes sense to fund health initiatives with a tax on a service that causes health care problems itself.

Just like cigarettes and alcohol, tanning salons carry a significant risk to those who use them.

All of these products and services lead to a greater threat of cancer and other illnesses and therefore create a larger burden on the national health care system.

The problem with the tax on the tanning salons is not that it singles out a particular industry but the method by which it is being implemented.

Tans offered at video-rental stores and Laundromats are hit hard by the new levy, but tans offered in gyms and health care centers are not subject to the tax.

The tax is expected to raise $2.7 billion over the next decade. It’s the kind of tax that makes sense because it affects those who engage in an elective activity, but it comes at the cost of unfairly dividing an industry.

Only “qualified physical fitness facilities” will be able to provide tanning beds without being taxed — that is, if access to the beds is a part of a membership fee. If time in the tanning bed is offered as an upgrade, however, it’s subject to the levy.

Sitting in a tanning bed is no more or less dangerous depending on what facility you are using. Congress’ decision to pick and choose which businesses have to carry the burden of the tax is simply unfair to the industry as a whole.

Congress should take the opportunity to expand this tax to cover all tanning beds, no matter what kinds of businesses offer them.