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Comment by engeljohnb | Hacker News Reader

A second opinion is a smart move if one has doubts about their diagnosis. Doctors make mistakes, and even though I've worked with countless great doctors, I've never worked a job where there wasn't at least one who was undiscerning, or downright lazy and negligent. It's hard to tell people to trust their doctor when I know there are plenty of doctors out there like this.

But AI as of right now is worse than any bad doctor I've ever worked with.

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The healthcare affordability crisis is only going to exacerbate the trend of using AI as a replacement for a real doctor. I went to urgent care a few months ago to get tested for COVID and two other flu strains and it came out to almost $500.

Anecdotally, several people in my life who embrace less traditional (and sometimes more conspiratorial) views on modern healthcare tend to be the ones that can't afford it. A confident-sounding chatbot to answer questions day and night about what's going on with your body is very seductive in a world where access to real healthcare is getting further and further out of reach.

That's the balance I'm finding it very hard to strike when talking to my family about doctors.

Everyone is either a "all doctors are scams" QAnon type, or they blindly trust everything their doctor says, no matter how fishy, in fear of coming off as one of the former group.

And, to use a phrase we all hate by now, you're absolutely right. When most people have to go into debt to even see a doctor, what can people possibly conclude from that besides "all doctors are out to scam you?"

> I went to urgent care a few months ago to get tested for COVID and two other flu strains and it came out to almost $500.

They have at-home COVID+Flu tests are my local CVS for $35, why go to an urgent care?

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