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Comment by cute_boi | Hacker News Reader

Yea, the way they turned the bleak situation into something sanguine is fascinating. I still remember how expensive is MRI. I used to earn like $150 usd and the cost was around $200 usd. I hope such inequality shall perish in the future, so people can at least get proper treatment.

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I'm curious what makes them expensive. In Japan they are basically free (covered by national insurance for which the price is low). I believe at one point Japan had the most MRI machines per capita. I think the government just decided they were worth while and got a bunch where as in the USA they were seen as a money source and they generally charge $1k to $10k ?!?!?!

I'd love for the expensive ones to be disrupted. The dream is we get some attachment for our smart phones and turn them into Tricorders.

I worked for a medical company that did RF tumor ablation. In Japan we sold a machine that cooked small tumors as an out-patient procedure, because their easy MRIs would spot them early. In the US, we sell more complicated machines that work on bigger tumors because we find them later here - when they get too big, you have to be very careful not to damage surrounding tissue.

As with many other parts is US healthcare, we pay too much for the exact same products and services.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/03/15/why-a...

I live in a Russian city of 100k people and there are at least 3 medical MRI machines nearby that I visited, of a total 8 offers that maybe share the machines (though likely not), all of them of 1T field strength or above. I can get a brain MRI this week for some $70, or a full-body MRI (the most expensive as per the price list) for $400. If anything, these services got some 30%-50% cheaper in the past decade. Barring some African hellhole, the argument to scarcity or expense of these machines is complete and utter bullshit. It's just that HN is America-centric, and American healthcare is a cesspit of waste and corruption.

They are $150k on Alibaba. A free market price for an MRI would be maybe $50.

Noninvasive diagnostics should not be regulated.

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