Hawking on National Health Care

I can't wait to hear what the conservative response will be to Stephen Hawking's quip that he "wouldn't be alive today" without UK national health care.

Here's why this is important: Because the root of the conservative/libertarian argument is that public schemes of distribution destroy meritocracy. There is a contrasting view, however, that seems intuitively, and experientially, more true: Universalizing public goods will make potential geniuses into real geniuses, and will open up space and possibility for millions of people who, at any given moment, don't currently have it.