[DBrow]

Someone told me that there are more CAT scanners in Southern California than in all of Canada

Could be - there are more people in California than in Canada.

I was told Southern California- 12 million or so, you can drive across it in a few hours, as opposed to Canada at 25-30 million, takes 2 days to drive across.

Even then, CA and CN are close in population, give or take 20%.

[GregoryFul]

Hard to judge what you are saying - CA population 2006: 34M, Canada 33M. Have no idea what the catscan population is - but it would not be unreasonable for CA and Canada to have similar numbers of machines, if they are efficiently utilized.

I've heard the arguable slur in this country that hospitals buy excessive expensive equipment - and then schedule people for expensive tests that they really do not need - to pay for the equipment. Who knows?