A last minute deal was cut on the Senate floor to switch the originally proposed tax on cosmetic procedures for an equal percentage tax on tanning salons. Lobbyists for the cosmetic industry had pushed hard for the removal of the tax. Tanning salon small business owners were caught off guard.

Breaking News from the LA Times:

Senate plan would tax tanning services

Democrats replace the 'botax' on cosmetic procedures with a 10% sales tax on the use of tanning beds, citing skin cancer concerns. The tax would raise an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years.

Citing concerns over skin cancer, Senate Democrats inserted a last-minute provision into their healthcare overhaul that would tax the use of tanning beds.

The 10% sales tax would be imposed on individuals who purchase tanning services...

The tanning tax would help pay for the massive overhaul by raising an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years. It replaces a proposed excise tax on elective cosmetic surgery that was previously included in the bill. The "botax" would have raised more than twice the amount as the tanning tax. But cosmetic surgeons, who argued that it would discriminate against middle-class women, launched a successful lobbying campaign against it.

Jennifer Fermino at the NY Post opines this morning:

If Botox users could move their faces, they'd be smiling wide over the proposed Senate health-care plan, but tanning-bed fanatics are sure to be seeing red.

The bill's provisions that will likely sail through the Senate will slap a 10 percent tax on all trips to the tanning bed.

The fake-bake tax replaces an earlier tariff on cosmetic procedures like Botox, tummy tucks and hair transplants, which were scrapped in the latest negotiations.

A number of prominent Democrat Senators and even a Vice-President have been known to have Botox procedures and hair-transplants.

Blogger Far Right Democrat quipped:

The tanning association trade organization (if there is one) needs to hire better lobbyists and start giving campaign donations to Obama.