AI and the Future of American Health Care: AFTF’s Statement to Congress

Statement for the Record

Perry Metzger

Chairman of the Board

Alliance for the Future

Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Energy and Commerce

U.S. House of Representatives

Hearing on “The Positive Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Transforming America’s Health Care Systems”

September 3, 2025

Chairman Guthrie, Chairman Griffith, Ranking Member Pallone, Ranking Member DeGette, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to submit this statement for the record on behalf of the Alliance for the Future (AFTF). Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a future promise; it is here now, already transforming how the United States delivers care, supports clinicians, and improves patient outcomes. Congressional leadership can help ensure that AI innovation in healthcare in the United States saves lives, empowers Americans to pursue good health, and leads the world in healthcare AI research, development, and application.

Artificial intelligence has been elevated to a national priority. President Donald J. Trump’s America’s AI Action Plan¹ recognizes that many critical sectors, including health care, have been slow to adopt AI because of distrust or limited understanding, a complex regulatory environment, and a lack of clear governance and risk-mitigation standards. It calls for a coordinated federal effort to establish a dynamic, “try-first” culture for AI across American industry.

We completely agree with the President.

Healthcare in the United States needs the approach outlined in the President’s plan to help AI reach its full potential in finding cures, eliminating diseases, and overcoming hurdles and bureaucratic thinking to put patients first.

AI is already being deployed to help patients. As the Mayo Clinic reports:

Studies have shown that in some situations, AI can do a more accurate job than humans. For example, AI has done a more accurate job than current pathology methods in predicting who will survive malignant mesothelioma, which is a type of cancer that impacts the internal organs. AI is used to identify colon polyps and has been shown to improve colonoscopy accuracy and diagnose colorectal cancer as accurately as skilled endoscopists can.²

Congress must help accelerate these early AI advances in health care with a national AI framework that includes preemption of state AI laws. An incoherent patchwork of state laws on AI will create a counterproductive climate filled with contradiction, bureaucracy, and excessive financial costs, keeping patients in limbo when they could be on the path to recovery.

Today’s hearing is an opportunity to scrutinize the pivotal role AI is playing in improving healthcare. It is also an opportunity to reveal just how rapidly those gains could be lost in the absence of clear congressional action to create the space AI needs to develop and improve health outcomes for Americans.

As the Congressional Research Service reports, “…the use of AI in health care broadly falls into three categories: diagnosis and treatment, patient engagement and adherence with treatment plans, and administrative functions.”³ Far from just clinical applications, AI has the potential to completely revolutionize the patient experience and improve treatment. In diagnosis and treatment, AI helps clinicians spot disease earlier and with greater consistency, serving as a second set of eyes that speeds decisions without replacing physician judgment.

For patients, AI can translate complex discharge instructions into plain language, send timely reminders, and personalize follow-ups so people actually complete their care plans. On the administrative side, AI reduces the paperwork and lag that frustrate both patients and providers, streamlining scheduling, documentation, and other back-office work so clinicians can spend more time in the exam room. The throughline is simple: faster answers, fewer delays, and less friction from check-in to recovery, precisely the kind of “try-first” culture that accelerates access to better care.

Congress can help to sustain this momentum. We respectfully encourage the Subcommittee to develop and recommend a light-touch framework that keeps oversight adaptive, to support timely patient access through clear and modernized coverage pathways, and to promote national clarity so innovators can scale solutions across the country.

Artificial intelligence is already transforming health care systems across our nation for the better. With wise stewardship, Congress can ensure this transformation continues at the speed patients deserve.

On behalf of the Alliance for the Future, I would like to thank the Subcommittee for convening this necessary hearing on AI and healthcare, and for its leadership in shaping policies that enable patients and providers to benefit from AI innovations.

---