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!
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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