The BIG PROBLEM with permitting outside care (or even second opinions) in a socialized system is that the outside help gives people LEVERAGE in dealing with the government-run system.
In the UK, it now COMMON for pensioners (i.e., old people) with terminal cancer to be told that “there is nothing we can do for you” and be sent to a “Pathways” operation to simply die. Similarly, when a pensioner needs a hip or knee, it simply isn’t worth the state spending the money...since that money could be MUCH BETTER spent on prenatal care for their (now mostly Muslim) pregnant women. They are not willing to spend the money for both, while we do (or, actually, did, prior to Obamacare).
And that is one of the reasons healthcare is more expensive here - 90 year olds get cancer treatments and hips, rather than being sent off to die, or condemned to a wheelchair.
That’s not how the Liverpool pathway works. 60000 people are on it or registered for it, and its voluntary. And for 99% of patients, it works.
Although we agree it has been abused in the last few years.