As the new health care bill was signed into law, here's one provision that I'm happy to say I wholeheartedly support.
This bill imposes a 10% tax on visits to tanning salons. And I'm all for it.
It certainly makes more sense than taxing food does. If consumers spend their time and money on artificial tans that put them at risk for skin cancer - which places a burden on the health care system - that's their choice. This tax affects those who choose to patronize such a service.
The tax is on a potentially unhealthy vanity product - not on a necessity such as food or shelter.
Last year, a World Health Organization agency even placed tanning beds in its highest cancer risk category. An Associated Press piece even said that cancer researchers now deem tanning salons "as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas."
If you opt for unhealthy activities that we all end up paying for, then you have to pay into this system. Those who insist health care is not a right can't very well claim that visiting tanning beds without having to pay a tax on it is a right.
(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Health-Care-Bill-Will-Likely-Increase-Tanning-Fees/z5EQp2UEKEKG77N_StB1tQ.cspx)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tanning salons and the health care law
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I hate to pester, Mr. Brown, but we still haven't received your income tax return yet. You have until April 15, but we're getting kind of anxious since you haven't sent one in the last several years. Are you planning to e-file or should we expect it in the mail?
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