re: Healthcare in this country is a bunch of absolute crap for those who actually pay for it.

Google the hospital charity care policy, it’ll be on their website. It’ll give you the payment plan options and shed light on their charity care by FPG (federal poverty guidelines).

Most hospitals do zero interest payment plans and most have a policy where they don’t submit delinquent patient payments to credit bureaus.

In other words, you can just not pay it if you want

Source: I’m a healthcare consultant for large health systems.