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Thread: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10 percent tax beginning today in just one of the changes Americans will see as a result of the U.S. health-care overhaul signed into law by President .


    They will find that money somewhere!

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    This is where knowing a makeup artist who does spray tanning independently could come in very useful!
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    I have a month to month membership with my tanning, I've been grandfathered into, no tax for me!

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    ^ Ha! KS, you are very taxable. Makes me wish I was an IRS agent

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    Once again I have embraced my addiction and have put off the moral dilemma to another day.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    I have a month to month membership with my tanning, I've been grandfathered into, no tax for me!
    ... well, at least until next month !


    I would also point out that there are other aspects of the new national health care law that will disproportionately impact dancers ... but perhaps not as directly.

    The new tax on medical device manufacturers will increase the wholesale price of breast implants purchased by plastic surgeons ... which will in turn be passed on to the patient.

    The national health care law authorized the 'takeover' of all gov't guaranteed student loans by the gov't agency itself, with the gov't thus pocketing 100% of any net profit. Thus the future 'spread' on student loan interest rates will be higher than would otherwise have been the case. The additional cost to the student over the expected life of the student loan is estimated to be on the order of $1800 .

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    Featured Member MarvelGirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    I have never in my entire life felt so stupid as I do trying to make sense of this health care law.

    A tax on tanning? WTF?

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Quote Originally Posted by MarvelGirl View Post
    I have never in my entire life felt so stupid as I do trying to make sense of this health care law.

    A tax on tanning? WTF?
    I couldn't agree more about this mess.

    But the tax on tanning makes slightly more sense to me than does the cosmetic surgery tax. Especially if you look at it this way: the World Health Organization recently declared tanning beds to be carcinogenic. The American Cancer Society has already held this position for awhile. As a carcinogen, the use of tanning beds results in negative externality being placed on others in society. That is, the cost of treatment for the various cancers associated with tanning bed use affects everyone's health care costs. The cost is even more "distributed" when we consider how many uninsured individuals must seek these treatments every year. But this is not so with cosmetic surgery! How does a surgery for me, paid for solely by me, affect anyone but me and my plastic surgeon? It doesn't! Yet another example of the government extending its ugly, unnecessary reach.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Banning Mary Jane, Banning Salt... same thing.

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    Featured Member MarvelGirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    So, the thinking is that those of us who tan or get cosmetic surgery will somehow become a drain on the health care system...

    So, I don't drink, smoke, use drugs and I exercise regularly and eat a natural diet with no processed food or junk food but because I tan, I am more of a "burden" than my 600 pound neighbor who eats fast food four times a day and calls an ambulance once a week because he fell down or got stuck in his bathtub (no joke)...

    breathe Marvelgirl, jut breathe...

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Quote Originally Posted by MarvelGirl View Post
    So, the thinking is that those of us who tan or get cosmetic surgery will somehow become a drain on the health care system...

    So, I don't drink, smoke, use drugs and I exercise regularly and eat a natural diet with no processed food or junk food but because I tan, I am more of a "burden" than my 600 pound neighbor who eats fast food four times a day and calls an ambulance once a week because he fell down or got stuck in his bathtub (no joke)...

    breathe Marvelgirl, jut breathe...
    Because it's not pc to say obese people are a problem but it's ok to say that about people who tan or get surgery. I think obese people are a big drain on the medical system and there's more than people who tan or get surgery. Same thing with smokers. They go after smokers, though obese are a bigger drain, but because it's ok to go after smokers they do. I am not obese, I don't tan, I have no plastic surgery, and I don't smoke, but even I can see the system is biased.

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    Featured Member sxcbbw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    So a grease tax is a good idea, right? Finally.
    Get the fuck off my harbl, yo'.

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    Featured Member MarvelGirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    ^^^^
    I am not in favor of ANY new taxes. I'm just insulted that I'm deemed a burden when I already pay for health insurance out of my own pocket, pay my taxes and maintain good health.

    FUCK this country.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    ^^^ it's not so much that you personally present an extra burden. Like the second-hand smoking health studies, the tanning studies are far from conclusive. But smokers and tanners DO share one thing in common ... they are both 'easy marks' for the collection of additional money, on the theoretical basis that they ( as a class ) are 'voluntarily' increasing their future chances of developing expensive medical problems. Same is true of elective plastic surgery patients ... who are theoretically also 'voluntarily' increasing their future chances of developing expensive medical problems.

    But entering into a similar discussion re overweight Americans is a taboo subject from a political standpoint ... so far. However, the groundwork is being laid for this to change ( i.e. public schools monitoring children's body mass index etc. ). The airlines are also chomping at the bit to be able to begin pricing airline tickets by the pound instead of by the seat !!! After all, airline fuel costs are directly proportional to the weight the plane must carry. Just wait until every check-in counter has a platform scale where the passenger plus their luggage gets weighed !

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    If they change my monthly contract to add the tax, I'm just ending it right there and then. I get plenty of natural sunshine and will just do home self-tanners. There, problem solved for this taxpayer.

  15. #15
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Okay I'm very clueless about this whole new healthcare thing and normally I try to stay ontop of these sort of things... is this related to the same thing that 14 states are filing lawsuits against?

    P.S. I read somewhere a few months ago on Cosmopolitan.com about this 10% cost increase for tanning. The article made it seem like a hopeful deterrent for people who tan regularly since the article linked it to death.

    "A Death by Suntan at age 26"

    "The Tan Act Gets Passed"

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    is this related to the same thing that 14 states are filing lawsuits against?
    the new 10% tax on tanning sessions is a provision of the new US national health care law. It basically incorporates some of the earlier provisions of the 'Tan Act'.

    As to the 14 states filing lawsuits, the legal basis of these lawsuits appear to center on a so-called 'states rights' issue / constitutional issue regarding the extent of federal gov't power.

    (snip)"Virginia filed a similar lawsuit simultaneously in federal court in Richmond. That suit is slightly different in that it focuses in part on the clash between a recently enacted state law protecting the right of Virginia residents to refuse unwanted health insurance and the new federal law that imposes penalties on anyone who seeks to defy the national government’s command to purchase health insurance.

    “Congress lacks the political will to fund comprehensive health care … because taxes above those already provided [in federal healthcare programs] would produce too much opposition,” the Virginia lawsuit says.

    “The alternative, which was also a centerpiece of the failed Clinton administration health care proposal, is to fund universal health care in part by making healthy young adults and other rationally uninsured individuals cross-subsidize older and less healthy citizens,” the suit says.

    The seven-page lawsuit presents a straightforward challenge to Congress’s decision to rely on its power to regulate interstate commerce to justify the federal mandate that every individual must have health insurance or pay a penalty.

    “It has never been held that the Commerce Clause [of the Constitution] … can be used to require citizens to buy goods and services,” the suit says. “To depart from that history to permit the national government to require the purchase of goods and services would deprive the Commerce Clause of any effective limits.”"(snip)

    from

    I am told that the basic legal issue goes all the way back to the 1930's, when FDR managed to get Social Security legislation passed. Way back then, the US courts ruled that the federal gov't lacked the authority to mandate that Americans purchase 'retirement benefits' i.e. that the federal gov'ts authority was limited to imposing taxes. Thus while Social Security was 'sold' as a retirement system, in reality it was ( and is ) simply one more tax ... with absolutely no guarantee that X amount of retirement benefits must actually be paid out by the federal gov't.

    The legal problem with the new national health care law appears to be that it mandates that Americans must purchase health insurance from 'privately owned' insurance companies. Such payments cannot be called a tax since they aren't paid to the government. Arguably, the only way this mandate can be legalized is if the government were to establish a gov't operated health insurance program where the dollars paid by Americans to 'purchase' health insurance were, like Social Security, simply one more tax payment carrying no guarantee that the gov't would actually provide X amount of health care in exchange for the payment.

    Of course, there are lots of other reasons that provisions of the new national health care law could be declared unconstitutional. One rather inventive claim is that the tanning tax descriminates on the basis of race !!!!! See

    (snip)"I [have] a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law. It strikes me that the health care bill which requires that indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10% tax beginning in July will necessarily only impact tanning salon customers. I have never been to a tanning salon, but since their purpose is to turn light skin darker, I can only assume that the overwhelming majority, if not totality, of customers are white. Does Adarand [ v. Pena, a US supreme court decision involving gov't policy to preferentially employ minority owned contractors at higher cost - sic] apply to taxation decisions as it does to spending decisions like the Section 8(a) program, but what about taxing decisions?"(snip)


    If they change my monthly contract to add the tax, I'm just ending it right there and then
    Actually, there won't be any need to change your existing private contract. They will still charge you X dollars for tanning services. But then they will also collect the new 10% tax on top of that amount just as any retailer separately collects Y% of sales tax on top of the purchase price of the merchandise you are purchasing.

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 03-26-2010 at 12:04 AM.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    the last time i flew, from a small island back to mainland us, they did ask my weight before boarding. i didn't understand this until i saw the plane



    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    After all, airline fuel costs are directly proportional to the weight the plane must carry. Just wait until every check-in counter has a platform scale where the passenger plus their luggage gets weighed !

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    hmmm theres an idea

    sue the government for racial discrimination

    I doubt only Caucasians go to tanning salons but it would stand to reason they are the majority of the customer base


    think i'll move to texas I seem to remember reading something about the governor talking about seceding from the union

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Possible, but I was able to deduct the interest of my student loans on my taxes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    ... well, at least until next month !


    I would also point out that there are other aspects of the new national health care law that will disproportionately impact dancers ... but perhaps not as directly.

    The new tax on medical device manufacturers will increase the wholesale price of breast implants purchased by plastic surgeons ... which will in turn be passed on to the patient.

    The national health care law authorized the 'takeover' of all gov't guaranteed student loans by the gov't agency itself, with the gov't thus pocketing 100% of any net profit. Thus the future 'spread' on student loan interest rates will be higher than would otherwise have been the case. The additional cost to the student over the expected life of the student loan is estimated to be on the order of $1800 .

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    Angry Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    ^^^ it's not so much that you personally present an extra burden. Like the second-hand smoking health studies, the tanning studies are far from conclusive. But smokers and tanners DO share one thing in common ... they are both 'easy marks' for the collection of additional money, on the theoretical basis that they ( as a class ) are 'voluntarily' increasing their future chances of developing expensive medical problems. Same is true of elective plastic surgery patients ... who are theoretically also 'voluntarily' increasing their future chances of developing expensive medical problems.
    On that same basis tobacco and liquor taxes should drastically escalate. There is no doubt that those products produce major health expenses. However, they also have strong lobbyists.
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    tobacco taxes have been increasing for years.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Quote Originally Posted by MarvelGirl View Post
    ^^^^
    I am not in favor of ANY new taxes. I'm just insulted that I'm deemed a burden when I already pay for health insurance out of my own pocket, pay my taxes and maintain good health.
    It is insulting. Nothing is being done to address people who are huge (no pun intended) drains on the system and keep our health care costs so high.

    And this legislation further penalizes healthy individuals. We'll have to pay even more money so that the unhealthy and ill won't be subject to lifetime insurance payout caps.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    And this legislation further penalizes healthy individuals. We'll have to pay even more money so that the unhealthy and ill won't be subject to lifetime insurance payout caps.
    specifically, the new national health care law penalizes young, healthy individuals who also exhibit a strong work ethic and also report their high incomes to the IRS !

    I can see the new $800 a year penalty for failure to purchase expensive 'gov't approved' insurance coverage without the aid of gov't subsidies ( carrying a premium of probably $7,000 per year ) prompting several actions on the part of dancers. The obvious first possibility is simply choosing not to report their cash incomes. After all, Americans whose 'official' earnings are low enough will not be assessed the penalty, and will be eligible for generous gov't subsidy vouchers with which to purchase insurance. However, the IRS has undoubtedly figured this out as well, which probably explains the addition of 16,500 new IRS agents to the payroll.

    The next probable action will be a deliberate decision by dancers to work less days per week in order to keep their incomes below the point where new taxes begin to 'bite'.

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    Featured Member MarvelGirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    The next probable action will be a deliberate decision by dancers to work less days per week in order to keep their incomes below the point where new taxes begin to 'bite'.
    I am seriously considering that. I've been sitting here thinking about taking a nice damn vacation this year just to lower my income so that I won't get screwed.

    That can't be good for the country. If people actually start trying to make less money because of these lousy taxes, how is that going to help anything?

    ugh.

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    Default Re: Welcome to new healthcare: 10% cost increase for tanning

    If people actually start trying to make less money because of these lousy taxes, how is that going to help anything?
    Well, for the 'upper middle class' Americans who choose to keep their earnings below $200,000 a year to avoid the steep new income tax rates, it's not going to help much ... especially if this is accomplished by entrepreneurs taking fewer chances on business ventures thus producing fewer new jobs.

    However, for 'rich' Americans, the problem isn't that much of a problem. For example, they can now purchase California or New York or New Jersey municipal bonds that pay 6% interest, which is free of federal, state and local tax liability !!! This helps those technically bankrupt states to be able to keep sending out social welfare benefit checks and able to keep gov't employees on the payroll. Of course, in order to purchase these municipal bonds, you need to cough up $50,000 or $100,000 per bond ... which tends to keep 'middle class' Americans out of the muni bond market leaving the legal tax shelter they provide as the near exclusive province of the 'rich'.

    Of course the diversion of investment money into muni bonds will probably occur at the expense of selling off stocks and bonds of private sector companies, which will now become subject to medicare taxes for the first time on top of increasing capital gains and dividend tax rates. This in turn will make it more expensive for those private sector companies to finance expansions / modernizations / R&D, which in turn will probably lead to a loss of future American private sector jobs. However, this is likely to happen in any case as those private sector companies now have new national health care related costs to contend with for their American employees and retirees, prompting them to eliminate as many American jobs as possible in favor of China or India or other countries which carry far lower employee health care costs / environmental compliance and worker safety costs / product liability costs / tax rates etc.

    But back to the point about 'cutting back' on work effort. Where dancers are concerned at least, the new taxes and higher tax rates will definitely 'bite' quickly once incomes start to rise to the level where eligibility for gov't subsidies is lost and where the tax bracket percentage starts to climb exponentially. It is my understanding that the gov't is setting 4 times the local 'poverty' level as the threshold at which gov't subsidies for health care are lost ( = $88,000 for a family of 4 - $43,000 for a single person). This is also somewhere around the level where a serious percentage of federal and state income taxes must start to be paid. Thus undoubtedly some people are going to start crunching the numbers regarding the 'law of diminishing returns' when their earnings will start to exceed this level.

    Again, where dancers are specifically concerned, in most cases every additional night that a dancer chooses to work involves additional 'costs' ... from house fees to gasoline to restaurant meals ... which are fixed. Thus if the additional $200 in gross earnings from working a 5th night per week is now going to be taxed at a ~40% 'all in' rate ( = $120 net of taxes for the 5th night), and the same $50 house fee + $25 in other expenses must still be paid, it hardly seems 'worth it' to invest the 5th night's effort and energy. And this will be even more likely if the 5th night's earnings also puts the dancer over the total income threshold where she loses all eligibility for gov't health care voucher benefits and has to pay the full shot out of her own pocket ( at a cost of perhaps $7,000). On the other hand, reducing working hours down to 3 nights per week results in perhaps a ~20% 'all in' tax rate, eliminates two nights worth of house fees and related work expenses, and makes the dancer eligible for a sizeable gov't voucher with which to purchase health insurance at reduced cost ( of perhaps $5,000 thanks to a $2,000 gov't voucher credit).

    Put simply, a whole lot of people are now going to start doing the math in order to determine how much they will actually stand to gain ( net of additional taxes and lost gov't benefits ) by putting out maximum work effort.

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 03-28-2010 at 12:06 AM.

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