>Personally, I'd like to see these "free" services scrapped and, generally, people be responsible for paying their own way. I pay my own health insurance, pension, sickness insurance, etc. Yet I STILL have to pay National Insurance for the rest of the population!?!

In my opinion, that's all part of living in society.

You are lucky enough to be able to afford to pay for all of those things yourself, unfortunately, a large proportion of society is not able to & the majority of those are employed, but with very low wages. Do we, as a society, simply condemn them to the scrap heap - a disposable commodity that can simply be replaced with the next off the heap, once they find themselves ill & unable to afford the required health care ? Or, is it better, for society as a whole, to be mutually supportive.