Those other things you mentioned are not that up close and personal to the average joe, but issues pertaining to income and health ARE.
Considering that under the Patriot Act, your neighbor could report false information about you to Homeland Security and you could be placed in an unknown location, incommunicado, for an extended period of time without you family/friends knowing what happened to you, I have to disagree with your assertion that healthcare is much more personal.
What it does demonstrate is that the "average Joe" is easily manipulated. Neither Dems nor Repubs wanted their constituents to read and understand the Patriot Act; therefore there were no "talking points" passed on for the Limbaughs of the world to rail against.
There IS a desire on the right, because of its historical ties to big business, to derail health care reform. Since the right doesn't have the votes in Congress, they have to use the "average Joe" as their pawns.
Do you remember "Joe the plumber" who campaigned FOR McCain and against Obama asserting that Obamaland would kill his business when, in fact, McCain's plan would harm him more?