[denton-scratch]

> Health care systems that are funded by taxation ie pre-paid, in my view, escape those problems and encourage end of life scenarios that are more likely to be better (for a given value of better)

It remains a serious criminal offence in the UK to assist in suicide (suicide itself hasn't been a crime for decades).

> I think that I am very lucky to have the UK's NHS to care for me. We pay for it nominally via a second income related tax called "National Insurance" - we also have a country wide "Income Tax".

That is utterly incorrect. National Insurance is not ring-fenced; the money goes into the government's revenue pool, same as Income Tax. It can then be spent on weapons, wars, or subsidies for fossil-fuel industries.

NI is just a wheeze to allow governments to increase taxes on income without appearing to raise the rate of Income Tax. There's a reason the rate of NI has never gone down.

[Edit] I appear to be wrong: NI income doesn't go into the "general pool", at least not directly (it seems to be complicated).

NI is an obnoxious tax. It is capped; earnings over about £900 pw are untaxed. Pensioners are untaxed. So the burden falls most-heavily on less-well-off working people (the less you earn, the greater proportion of your earnings goes in NI).