Social safety net programs that provide for a minimum level of resources to meet the basic needs for food, clothing and shelter of non-disabled adults, and for families with dependent children when the parent(s) are not disabled are much trickier.   

A comprehensive national health care program would remove one significant basic need from the equation, and simplify the issue to some degree, but it is still very difficult and complex. This is where the rights and responsibilities of the individual and the rights and responsibilites of the group slam into each other like the tectonic plates along the Pacific rim.

Janie