AI-Powered Health Insurers Threaten Patient Care as Obama Warns of Regulatory Vacuum

Former President Barack Obama has expressed concerns about the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) in private hands, urging Democrats to create a public framework on AI safety. He warned that without such a framework, AI could become a threat to society. The House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy is working on a policy framework due this fall.

However, the current framework does not address the use of AI in health insurance, which is already being used to make decisions about who lives or dies. UnitedHealth, one of the largest health insurers, has invested $1.5 billion in AI and claims it can reduce medical spending by using algorithms to deny coverage.

But critics argue that this approach prioritizes profit over patient care, and that patients are being denied life-saving treatments due to algorithmic decisions. Colorado has already passed laws requiring bias audits and guaranteed appeal rights for AI-driven coverage decisions, while California and Texas have mandated that a licensed physician must sign off on any denial based on medical necessity.

House Democrats' Cost of Living Healthcare Working Group, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Terri Sewell, has been tasked with building out the party's affordability agenda on health care. However, their work so far has not addressed AI's growing role in coverage denials.