How health care markets work

Thanks to @scanman and @gruntdoc for retweeting this story.

@OMGfacts reports that MRI machines in the US are being made larger to accommodate fatter Americans.  An excerpt:

The makers of MRI machines and other medical scanners are hurrying to make machines that are bigger and can withstand heavier people.  In the last 15 years, the diameters for CT scanners have grown 25% from 2 to 2 1/2 feet.

The source for this story is Newser, which reports: 

For equipment manufacturers, US obesity—which affects 28% of the population—offers a chance to rake in more cash. 

"The US is the biggest market for us, so every product we build has the obese American patient in mind," says a Siemens exec. "It more or less has turned into a design requirement." 

That story, in turn, refers to the original article in the Wall Street Journal:

Even as equipment grows, doctors say imaging obese patients remains challenging. Scanners now on the market fit all but the largest patients, but X-rays and other imaging signals still struggle to penetrate layers of fat and produce diagnostically useful images at normal doses. Radiologists say it takes much more radiation to effectively image obese patients, bringing new health risks.