All the rage amongst the libertarian and free-market think-tanks these days is the idea of cutting health insurance costs by setting deductibles and co-pays very high and making up for the cost of routine care with Health Savings Accounts. The premiums are less because the routine nickel and dime stuff is the patient's expense and the insurer only has to cover the really big stuff like operations, expensive tests, etc.

So with that concept in mind I propose that instead of having the entire Atlantic coastal region, the Gulf of Mexico states, and of course California be a continual drain on the nation's treasury we make the denizens of these disaster prone regions pay a 10% FEMA tax surcharge on all income. It could be held in trust by the Feds until it's (inevitably it seems) needed to bail those people out of their latest disaster, earthquake, firestorm, or whatever.

Us folks in the rest of the country are tired of paying to rebuild levees, beachfront condos and what all for the people in California, Florida, and the Gulf. So in all fairness rather than blow another a hole in the federal budget and cry and whine about FEMA "not caring", they can instead pay a little extra for their life style choices, (and perhaps STF up too?) about how badly they are treated.

-Ali Massoud