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Opinion: Healthcare reform fun facts: The 10% tan tax

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I’m sure these nuggets will keep emerging from the healthcare overhaul bill, but so far here’s my favorite:

A 10% tanning tax.

Indoor tanning services will now carry an additional tax. (California, remember, has been talking about taxing all services, which presumably includes tanning, although given that in these parts, it’s copious and free outdoors, I expect people would flock to that alternative.)

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I expect it’s being regarded in health circles as the melanoma tax, not the tanning tax; an agency of the World Health Organization has found those UV rays to be carcinogenic to humans.

There is, as you will not be surprised to learn, an Indoor Tanning Assn., which, also not astonishingly, opposes this as a ‘’body blow to the industry,’’ as its executive director says.

It’s a blow, all right, but not that one: Healthcare reform strikes a blow for solar power!

-- Patt Morrison

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