What can you tell us Yanks about Healthcare in the UK

not reading the entire thread is hardly a crime.

No, not a crime. But this has been one of the best informed and best argued threads this year so for you to say it is "semi-interesting" without bothering to read it all sounds condescending and makes you look like someone who is more interested in having their point heard than being part of a discussion. And had you read the whole thread you'd have seen that the ideas you raise have already been discussed and you could have responded to the other contributor's views. You'd have seen for example that America spends a greater proportion of tax revenue on it's health care system than Britain does which surely casts some doubt on your belief that a greater role for the private sector would leave you with more money to spend how you want.
If you believe that 'charity' is a reliable enough provider of care to the poor then I'd say you are either very naive or very callous. You're portrayal of the NHS as somehow generally unpopular doesn''t seem to chime with the fact that even the Tories have realised it is the only public service that they have to be nice about - because infact it is popular, most people using it find it satisfactory and appreciate that it is free and that they do not have to live in fear of illness or injury or a change in their circumstances that would leave them without the ability to pay for what most people still regard as a right: decent health care.
And if you start to hypothecate tax so that you don't have to pay for the NHS can I choose not to pay for our army or for new motorways or anything else I either don't like or don't use? Why should any of my tax go to old people's homes if I decide that old people should be looked after by their familes? And if they happen not to have families then charity can do it's work? What market system would ever have given a damn about my parents in their last months; pretty poor, senile and disabled? None.