The NHS should be paid for with compulsory health insurance schemes rather than general taxation, a think tank has said.

There should also greater level of patient choice, says the study published on Friday.

The ideas are put forward by the Health Policy Consensus Group, which comprises experts, academics and writers from all sides of the political divide.

Rather than calling for further institutional upheaval, the group proposes a series of evolutionary changes.

The simplest involves reform of primary care trusts, permitting individuals to choose another PCT if dissatisfied.

Other possibilities included a treatment voucher and social insurance along Swiss lines.

But the most radical option would allow people the opportunity to become "mutual members" or "ordinary members" of the NHS.

Mutual members would join a health care purchasing co-operative, receiving tax credits from the government to pay up to 70 per cent of the cost of their health insurance premium.

"Most members of the public want better standards of health care, but are reluctant to pay higher taxes," says the group.

They argue the proposed solution would end years of party-political manipulation of public opinion which has left most people uncertain whether they are net payers towards the NHS or net takers.

"The new system will help to build a real sense of social solidarity based on the conscious knowledge that we were contributing to a system that serves as a system of insurance for rich and poor alike," said group chairman David Green.

"Current policies are self-contradictory. The government increasingly advocates consumer choice and yet the NHS remains a highly centralised public-sector monopoly," he added.

The groups call was given cautious backing by healthcare companies.

"Insurance has a significant role to play in healthcare funding," said the chief executive of Standard Life Healthcare, Mike Hall.

"The sustained investment required to meet the future demands of the NHS is not going to be met by taxation alone.

"It has long been our view that, for healthcare funding to work, as in other European countries, private spending should constitute a higher percentage of the overall spend on healthcare."