Health Bills Target Tanning, Snack Machines

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- Buried amid the broad strokes and policy refinements of the Congressional health care reform bills are provisions that would impact specific industries. The result would be not only hurt their bottom lines, but could likely lead to price increases borne by consumers.

The Senate bill proposes a slate of new fees on the health care sector. Drugmakers, such as Abbott Laboratories(ABT), Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY) and GlaxoSmithKline(GSK), would be hit with $2.3 billion in annual fees. Medical device makers, ranging from Varian Medical Systems(VARI) to General Electric(GE), would face up to $4 billion in annual fees.

UnitedHealth(UNH), Humana(HUM) and Cigna(CI) are among the health insurers that would be charged up to $6.7 billion a year in new fees. They would also face a 40% tax on "Cadillac plans," those valued at more than $8,500 for individuals or $23,000 for a family.

Although a tax on elective cosmetic surgery didn't survive either bills, the Senate version proposes a 10% tax on indoor tanning.

Just one mere sentence in the Senate version of the bill could cost the vending machine industry as much as $56.4 million in added costs during the first year of reform. The bill requires any business that owns or operates 20 or more vending machines to disclose the calories of the products they offer. There are 7.5 million vending machines in use throughout the US and more than 85% of them would be subject to the requirement.

Ned Monroe of the National Automatic Merchandising Association says his organization isn't opposed to such a disclosure. The bill's vague language, however, could prove costly for an industry hit hard by the recession.