And to further refute your claim that ‘the sort of developments in healthcare that originate in the US would not be countenanced here because of the cost’.....
First kidney transplant
First successful bone marrow transplant
First successful gene therapy to cure Severe Combined Immunodeficiency or ‘bubble boy’ disease
Worlds first test tube baby.
World’s first patient to have heart surgery using a fully remote-controlled robotic arm.
youngest patient ever to go through open heart surgery.
Surgeons at Guy’s and St Thomas’ have pioneered the world’s first use of 3D printing to support the successful transplantation of an adult kidney into a child.
Irrespective of policy, funding and administrative issues there will always the need for economic "triage" because there will never be enough money to do all the things we might want to do for all the people we might want to do them for, that is to say those suffering from "ill health" (itself an an elastic concept).
Different regimes, different countries, different people have to decide whether limited resources are spent on A rather than B, or in what proportion A and B share the funding.