That's what I hear and read all the time! When Churchill warned England about socialized medicine they went ahead and voted him out and the Socialist in and they have never been able to turn their Health care back around to the Private sector. Within 8 years of the Socialist's term the state health care was locked in and has stayed that way shortly after WWII was over.
You bring up a good point. Most of these big spending - big government projects can never be reversed once they're initiated. Can you imagine the gnashing of teeth if a future President tried to "deny the poor health care" by abolishing socialized medicine?
We still have "temporary" government programs left over from the 1930s. One of my favorites was a government guaranteed, no interest loan that was supposed to help rural farmers run electric lines to their homes. That program was still around the last I heard and the loans were going to a bunch of Chicago lawyers who figured out loopholes in the program.