MRIs are always going to be expensive. Just how it is.

Anything with exotic physics and high precision requirements (MR, CT, PET, Nuclear Medicine) is already expensive just in raw material... There's also shipping costs. All of the engineering, R&D, that goes into it. Safety and regulatory testing.

Actually, most medical devices have razor thin profit margins. All of the money is made back through service contacts. Because adding another million to recoup engineering costs would make an MRI even more inaccessible.

Lot of efforts by the big players to make things cheaper and easier to produce. But MRI for example will require a LOT of helium until we get better superconductors. Anything radiation will always require a lot of lead. Anything nuclear will require specialized isotopes and detectors.

Machines will never be cheap. But the insurance companies and the US healthcare model sure as hell make things worse.