Among the lesser known provisions in the now-rejected Republican House and Senate health care bills was a plan to eliminate an excise tax on tanning bed use. Tanning first became fashionable when Coco Chanel popularized the practice in the 1920s, making lounging outside in the sun a symbol of leisure, relaxation, and health. In the late 1970s, pioneering businesses began to offer ultraviolet (UV) radiation beds as a shortcut to fashionable tanned skin; by the 1990s, indoor UV tanning services were ubiquitous staples of the American beauty industry.
