You're making a basic assumption here, that being, that this only happened because of Britain's system of socialized medicine. I did a simple Google search, and it quickly turned up an example of this being done in the US:
http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/co...ull/156/5/1700
Yes, that was from 12 years ago, but I'd be willing to bet it's still happening today.
I'm not defending socialized medicine, and I'm against the government-run "option." But please, let's back up this argument with FACTS, not inaccurate ASSUMPTIONS.