John H, I made no such assumption. The "dearth" that you refer to is about the level of intelligent conversation which improved quite a lot when we got off the "party-line" dialogue. Remember, I asked the question and offered no judgement. And I responded that I applaud original thought.

Nationalized health care does benefit those who can't afford the technological advances of the medical profession. The States may have superior health care technology but only a rich minority can afford it here. We have uninsured people who can't. Then there is the question as to what constitutes health care. Is it drugs and medication, doctors being wooed by drug companies and insurance companies becoming wealthy because there isn't   enough available education for people to learn how to take care of themselves? And then the bureacracy of the HMO's that everyone is becoming familiar with? It seems to me that some health-care services work better for some people than others and a lot has to do with your level of income.

Regarding the comment about radicalism, in this world of party-lines....changing oneself is a pretty radical idea. Some would call Jesus a radical and would say that he changed himself as well as the world. Others, of course wouldn't.
As there are different "conservatives", there are different "radicals" as well. I guess Hitler was a "radical" as well as Dr. Martin Luther King.

Frank