Do those machines operate 24/7? I'm Canadian and get regular (publicly funded) MRIs as part of my healthcare needs and they always happen on time, and close to home. Zero issues. Sometimes you get appointments at weird hours but that's because they run them constantly.
We could definitely use more and our healthcare system could definitely use serious improvements, but the way it's talked about amongst Americans often seems a little divorced from reality.
CT scans were bad too. Everyone I knew just drove to New York to get diagnostic scan and dental work done at the time.
But even then: Ontario has 15 million people and 124 machines? NYC has 8 million residents and 470 machines.