In my case. As long as i make a monthly payment of any amount I will not be turned over to collections and be forced to sell my home. So I currently send $20_month to every Dr., radiologist, therapist ,hospital,etc. who i owe money. You dont get just one bill from the hospital, you typically get a bill from every provider who sees you. In mycase I send payments to 12 different facilities. Most people dont tealize that some hospitals are not for profit meaning they pay no income tax. Non profits are required to offer charity care to people with limited incone. I now meet this criteria and have applied for the debt forgiveness. You wont find the charity care information on the hospital websites, as they simply dont want you to know about it.
My pension and medicaid are available to me as I have payed into them through taxes Ive paid in my 50 years of working. So, kinda not free, its my money they are just giving it back to me.
I spent approx. 8 hours in my local hospital the night of my stroke. They performed 1 CT scan and kept asking me to smile, when they saw my crooked smile they requested a transfer to another facility by helicopter.
8 hours of basically just being monitored ($15000) a 30 minute flight to next facility ($18000) So at that point im already $33000 in debtt and have actuallly received no medical.
care. Medicaid will pay for a nursing home if required but will force the sale of my home to recoup those expenses upon my death. Keep in mind that many providers do not accept Medicaid so your limited as to who you can see. Its a mess over here. The working class people who have insurance,Typically dont use it because of high yearly deductables.its more of a hedge against catastrophic bills.
@Chlodog thats some bill before youāve even had any treatment. Itās good that they donāt make you sell tour home to pay back the whole bill but still seems a difficult way of paying some of it off. It would be easier to have 1 bill iām sure.
Our care home system sounds similar though as we have to sell houses if no one else living in them or on death.
I guess thereās no ideal system but i am grateful I donāt have a large medical bill.
Thnx for the explanation
The 33k with out say or benefit canāt be legal - there must be a class action in that. Not exactly āin reachā as solution though
The nhs at least saves us from that abuse
I hope this group give u support 
Just another participant from across the pond. Yes, we may have different financial situations, and different medical access problems, but that does not begin to affect the overall benefits of this forum! We are one big family.