Rights and Requirements

A question struck me as I heard a radio advertisement earlier today. The ad was for the taxpayer funded give away, which started in August 2008, of the SafeLink cell phones to qualifying citizens residents.

The question that came to mind was - has the government now decided that owning a cell phone is a right and that buying health insurance is a requirement?

Maybe because the reality is that one is about vote buying and the other is about expanding the role of government in daily life. Then again, in different ways, maybe they're really the same thing.