Last week, my colleague Cate (Brantley) reported on a number of analyses concluding that, while artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare may successfully catch more diseases earlier – and will more quickly and more broadly be able to pinpoint cures and therapies for those diseases – it will likely do nothing to decrease healthcare costs. In fact, indicators seem to point to the fact that AI will likely increase costs, both on the administrative and clinical fronts.
As you surely know, healthcare affordability is a primary issue for politicians amid the lead-up to the midterms. New reports out last week double down on this assertion:
First, an Axios-Ipsos poll finds that healthcare costs are a major driver of voter preferences for the midterms. No surprise.
Second, Gallup reports that Americans’ ability to afford healthcare has hit a five-year low. Gallup says that more than half of U.S. adults cannot afford access to quality care and have been struggling to pay their medical bills in recent months.
But I digress. We were talking about AI.
Last week, a national nonprofit called RAISE US was launched, headed by the former Secretary of Commerce in the Biden Administration, Gina Raimondo. It’s got a board with multiple governors from both red and blue states, and $500 million in funding put forward by big AI tech companies like Anthropic and OpenAI.
In other words, it’s a well-funded private-public group.
RAISE UP represents the largest initiative, as of yet, put together to help the U.S. workforce adapt to the “AI economy.”
As we’ve all read, some say that AI will bring about broad and deep job cuts across all industries, in all regions. On the other side, some say job losses will be minimized to specific jobs and specific industries.
According to Secretary Raimondo, “I’m excited about AI and all that the technology can do, but I am worried that we have to be purposeful and intentional to have a plan for America’s workforce.”
In its first year, RAISE US will start at the state level, working with community colleges in setting up course offerings and industry partnerships. The idea is to better position students and entry-level workers in the new economy.
The states, too, have taken the lead on regulating AI more broadly, as the Trump Administration has made clear it would like to see less regulation in the space, not more.
In healthcare, the most common issue being addressed by state legislatures in the past two years is how payers use AI: for instance, more than half of states have passed a law restricting the use of AI for prior authorization. Other AI issues being tackled by states include how AI handles health data and how chatbots interact with human users.
Some states are examining the sticky question of liability. For instance, Utah’s sweeping 2024 AI law says that the provider is liable.
That’s all for now, but don’t worry: we’ll be talking about AI again…and again…and again…
