It doesn't make sense full stop. I've lived in a country without one and so many had to go without, USA. Fantastic hospitals and surgeons, unfortunately unavailable to a large swathe of the population.This doesn't make sense though. When you say scrapping what does that mean? Get rid of all the staff and the buildings and start again? What would a different service look like? It would be the same staff in the same buildings offering the same service to the same patients. The only difference you can really make is a funding one or an organisation one and reforming and moving things around is done regularly and rarely makes any difference and I can't see how people paying directly instead of through tax is going to benefit anyone but the people that currently pay the most (the high tax payers).
The biggest changes that are needed are long-term strategy around preventative healthcare, use technology to improve access/communication and improved social care to reduce the demand on the NHS services. Pay the staff better, train more of them and make it a desirable and worthwhile place to work again. None of those things require scrapping the existing service.
Indeed it is, we need to stop the private sector from bleeding it dry for a start.The NHS is in need of massive reform, or even better scrapping, but no one will try because it is viewed as a sacred institution and anyone who doesn't see "Our NHS" as the best model for providing health care is a heretic.
I think those who spent most of their lives working abroad not paying in, wouldn't have the foggiest how and what it does, and why there it is so much love for it. Perhaps as you now get into old age and have grand children you may get to understand.The NHS is in need of massive reform, or even better scrapping, but no one will try because it is viewed as a sacred institution and anyone who doesn't see "Our NHS" as the best model for providing health care is a heretic.