this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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How medical insurance works (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

patents should expire

They do. It's just that they can be renewed under various circumstances, typically as an incentive to increase production.

Is there some reason why previous-generation technology, like the tech being used for MRIs in the 90s, can’t be used to manufacture more competitively-priced machines?

You need a certain amount of industrial capital geared towards making these machines and GE is the only one that really does (excepting manufacturers overseas). A big part of the problem is that we don't have a good mechanism for introducing new small businesses to the market. You really need to know someone that needs a steady number of MRI machines on a regular basis to make a new MRI factory worth it, and unless you have that business connection you have no buyers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

So you’d need to have a single integrated business, just to get all that information in-house.

The same company could build the machines, and sell the MRI scanning service.

Then you’d need a lot of conversations with various doctor’s offices.

But there are probably lots of places who’d rather be able to provide patients with a lower-cost, lower-quality MRI, so it should be possible to collect a number of providers saying “if such a service exists, I’ll use it”.

My guess is there’s gonna be a lot of government money available soon for people who want to build new manufacturing capability in the US