Asking ChatGPT Loaded Questions, Part 1

Those who know me know that I overthink just about everything. Sometimes, those little thought experiments take me down a rabbit hole where I string together if-then statements to arrive at an interesting view of what I was originally considering.

It's often too much trouble to walk someone through that thought process... so, I've enlisted ChatGPT.

I give ChatGPT a prompt - similar to my thought-experiment starting place - and see if it comes out with a result that is close to where I arrived.

Is this logically sound as a means to make any conclusions? Absolutely not.

It falls into a new category of fallacy I'll dub, "baiting AI into making conclusions for you."

But I'll say this... I think it makes some good points with a simple prompt.

Today's prompt came from some interactions lately where it felt like some nonprofit healthcare leaders were acting like old school mafia cliches.

I mean, c'mon... it's a healthcare nonprofit.

So I prompted ChatGPT:

"Make the argument that today's healthcare landscape in the united states has many similarities to organized crime"

Here is the argument it made, unedited:

While the comparison between the U.S. healthcare system and organized crime might seem drastic, it's a provocative metaphor that some use to underscore certain criticisms they have about the current healthcare model. Here are several points they might raise to make this argument:

1. Profit-driven: Both organized crime and parts of the U.S. healthcare system are profit-driven entities. In the case of healthcare, this can often lead to higher prices for services and medications. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, have been criticized for exorbitantly high drug prices. Similar to how organized crime syndicates generate revenue through illicit means, critics argue that some healthcare institutions exploit their market power to drive up prices.

2. Lack of transparency: Organized crime thrives on opaqueness and confusion, with many layers that prevent people from understanding their operations. Critics argue that a similar lack of transparency exists in the U.S. healthcare system, particularly in regards to billing. Hospital bills can often be confusing, and patients sometimes don't know the cost of procedures or treatments until they receive the bill.

3. Limited competition: Just as organized crime syndicates monopolize illegal markets, critics argue that limited competition in some areas of U.S. healthcare leads to higher costs and lower quality of care. This is particularly true in areas where there is only one hospital or where one insurance company dominates the market.

4. Racketeering-like behavior: Critics might compare the relationship between healthcare providers, insurance companies, and patients to a form of legal racketeering. For instance, insurance companies can dictate the pricing and accessibility of certain treatments, forcing patients into a corner where they have to pay high premiums and out-of-pocket costs.?

5. Predatory Practices: Critics argue that some elements of the healthcare system engage in predatory practices. For instance, surprise billing—where patients receive unexpected and often high bills after receiving care—can put significant financial stress on patients, similar to how victims of organized crime face unexpected demands for money.

6. Regulatory capture: This refers to the phenomenon where regulatory agencies, created to act in the public interest, instead advance the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry they are charged with regulating. Critics argue that this occurs in the U.S. healthcare system, akin to how organized crime can infiltrate and influence legal institutions.

Please note that this argument is quite critical and does not acknowledge the many people and organizations within the U.S. healthcare system who work tirelessly and ethically to provide care for patients. Also, while this analogy may provide a striking critique, it doesn't necessarily lead to useful solutions and can oversimplify complex problems.

*****

I love that it smooths things over at the end. We don't want our AI to be too critical.

But I think it came pretty close to what I was thinking.