Of the more than 800 million regular users of ChatGPT, 1 in 4 submits a prompt about healthcare every week, according to OpenAI. More than 40 million turn to ChatGPT every day with healthcare questions.
More than 5% of all ChatGPT messages globally are about healthcare, averaging billions of messages each week, according to a new OpenAI report (links to PDF download).
A Gallup poll published in December 2024 found that individuals' positive rating of the quality of healthcare in the U.S. hit its lowest point in Gallup’s trend dating back to 2001.
The current 44% of U.S. adults who say the quality of healthcare is excellent (11%) or good (33%) is down by a total of 10 percentage points since 2020, after steadily eroding each year. More than half of respondents (54%) rate U.S. healthcare as only fair (38%) or poor (16%). Americans rate healthcare coverage in the U.S. even more negatively than they rate quality. Just 28% say coverage is excellent or good, four points lower than the average since 2001 and well below the 41% high point in 2012.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in November, 29% of respondents cite healthcare costs as the most urgent national health problem, and a combined 70% say the healthcare system has major problems or is in a state of crisis.
OpenAI asserts that as patients are increasingly frustrated with the cost, access and quality of U.S. healthcare, they are turning to tools like ChatGPT to navigate the healthcare system, enabling them to self-advocate.
Based on anonymized ChatGPT message data, nearly 2 million messages per week (1.6 million to 1.9 million) focus on health insurance, including comparing plans, understanding prices, handling claims and billing, eligibility and enrollment, and coverage and cost-sharing details, OpenAI reports.
In underserved rural communities, users send an average of nearly 600,000 healthcare-related messages every week. Studying a four-week timespan in late 2025, OpenAI found that ChatGPT averaged more than 580,000 healthcare-related messages per week from these hospital deserts across the U.S.
OpenAI studied anonymized ChatGPT user data in “hospital deserts,” defined as locations that are more than a 30-minute drive from a general medical or general children’s hospital. Wyoming ranked first in share of all these desert messages (4.15%), followed by Oregon (3.4%), Montana (3.2%), South Dakota (2.95%) and Vermont (2.89%). In other words, the least populated state, Wyoming, has the highest rate of healthcare-related messages from hospital deserts nationwide, the OpenAI report states.
"AI will not, on its own, reopen a shuttered hospital, restore a discontinued OB unit, or replace other critical but vanishing services. But it can make a near-term contribution by helping people in underserved areas interpret information, prepare for care, and navigate gaps in access, while helping rare clinicians reclaim time and reduce burnout," the OpenAI researchers wrote.
Seven in 10 healthcare conversations in ChatGPT happen outside of normal clinic hours, which demonstrates that individuals are turning to AI seeking actionable information when medical facilities are closed.
An OpenAI analysis of anonymized ChatGPT user data finds that most health-related conversations in the U.S. actually happen out of typical clinic hours, defined as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time.
In general, 3 in 5 adults in the U.S. say they’ve used AI tools for their health or healthcare in the past three months, according to an OpenAI survey.
Among U.S. adults who have used AI to help manage their health in the past three months, 55% used it to check or explore symptoms, 52% said they were able to ask questions at any time of day, 48% turned to it to understand medical terms or instructions and 44% said they used it to understand treatment options.
The American Medical Association reported that 66% of physicians adopted AI for at least one use case in 2024, up from 38% in 2023. Among nurses, 46% use AI weekly, according to the report.
In the same report, OpenAI suggested a number of policy actions to support the use of AI in healthcare including strengthening healthcare infrastructure, supporting the workforce and updating regulatory approaches. The company advocates that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clarify the regulatory pathway for AI medical devices for consumer use. The company also encouraged the FDA to establish new guidance on when AI to support physicians’ independent medical judgment is regulated in today’s environment to promote innovation and responsible use of AI by healthcare providers.