This is a huge problem in US health care financing: we have a fee-for-service model, no price transparency, and a consumer base (insulated from a lot of the costs of procedures by indirect payment through employer-provided insurance) conditioned to think procedures are inherently good. We waste billions annually on procedures that shouldn't be delivered at all.
I'm fond of pointing out the stat (true as of a year ago) that Massachusetts (I think it's MA?) has more MRI machines than the entire country of Canada.
I would posit this is more of a function of Canada having too few machines, with a median wait of 10 weeks for an MRI. [1]
To me it's crazy that people are waiting an average of nearly 3 months to get imaging. This is probably after waiting a couple months for their doctor's appointment to get the MRI scheduled in the first place.
That is kindof crazy! Imagine you are suspicious that something is awry in your soft tissue, in which case I think MRI is the main diagnostic (?). Then you don’t find out for ten weeks, plus some for analysis!
> MRI's are expensive and difficult to amortize for poorer countries or ones that don't have a great healthcare system
Canada is towards the bottom. I see what you did there. I guess I never considered Canada a poor country or one with a bad healthcare system. But at the same time I was only there a few times to a major city and never interacted with their healthcare system.
tptacek · · focus · HN ↗
I'm fond of pointing out the stat (true as of a year ago) that Massachusetts (I think it's MA?) has more MRI machines than the entire country of Canada.
FlyingAvatar · · focus · HN ↗
To me it's crazy that people are waiting an average of nearly 3 months to get imaging. This is probably after waiting a couple months for their doctor's appointment to get the MRI scheduled in the first place.
[1] [<a href="https://getmrifast.ca/mri-wait-times" rel="nofollow">https://getmrifast.ca/mri-wait-times]
pinkmuffinere · · focus · HN ↗
EA-3167 · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/282401/density-of-magnetic-resonance-imaging-units-by-country/" rel="nofollow">https://www.statista.com/statistics/282401/density-of-magnet...
Japan is a standout, and then you see most of the West just below them... Canada is way down the list.
excannuk · · focus · HN ↗
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rdtsc · · focus · HN ↗
Canada is towards the bottom. I see what you did there. I guess I never considered Canada a poor country or one with a bad healthcare system. But at the same time I was only there a few times to a major city and never interacted with their healthcare system.