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Comment by satellite2 | Hacker News Reader

This is not healthcare per se but insurance policy. It doesn't say anything about the use of AI in actual medicine.

Given how tightly integrated insurance is with what treatments Doctors are allowed to give you, it's absolutely a problem for the entire healthcare system.

"Before you go on this medication that's specifically targeted at your symptoms and diagnosis, you must first try and fail these 5 other treatment methods, including a round of anti-anxiety meds and counseling."

I've actually had anti-anxiety medications relieve a whole raft of symptoms that obviously turned out to be anxiety. There are many problems with healthcare systems, but I have to say that lorazepam is really the best drug I ever took; I can see why people become dependent, so I take it quite sparingly.

There's a lot that could be said about how an "anxiety" diagnosis is abused by doctors and insurance companies (especially against women), but in the end it really boils down to one thing:

The medications you're taking should be a determination between you and your Doctor, and not an AI working for your insurance company.

I could probably expound quite a bit on the problems of interjecting an insurance company into healthcare, but I'd say that as a principal, I completely agree with you.

Insurance companies in America determine which patients are worth treating and which ones are unprofitable. In theory AI can enable better and cheaper treatments for everyone but that would mean insurance companies would have to start caring about something other than profits. Their main metric is profit so AI will be used to maximize profit and minimize costs just like in every other industry.

Medical Insurance has all of the characteristics of a bad insurance business: small claims, frequent claims, horrendous adverse selection risk, and moral hazard everywhere.

Undoubtedly, AI will help it reach its logical conclusion even faster.

Sadly, there is no state of malfunction that will result in the people having the ability to affect change feel compelled to affect change. With incentives or "that's just how the world works" effectively conspire against improvement.

I'm sorry, did the title say "medicine"? What's your problem? If you think these kind of low effort comments are contributing to the discussion, please reconsider.

Insurance policy is unfortunately a large part of healthcare in America.

To all the sibling comments saying "insurance is part of the 'Healthcare System,'" well, the headline could have said "Health Insurance" but instead chose a broader category. The parent comment is helpful because it adds context.

Further, the anecdatum of one provided in the article doesn't support the use of "AI" in the headline nor the thesis that "'AI Is Supercharging" anything. It refers to an algorithm that the company never divulges. It could just as well be a random number generator or a magic eight ball as much as it is "AI."

The article is a clickbait moment of hate.

agree, this is a low quality article, using a single example to define an entire industry

They put no effort into finding places where AI is making things better in healthcare. One example I know of, https://ferrumhealth.com/

Well, they don't say medicine, they say healthcare system. That seems accurate considering your actual access to healthcare and the level of quality depends on insurance.

The title says "Healthcare system". Insurance is part of that.

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