As a foreward, this is not advice.
So something I've found has been true for me personally, but I have no idea if it's an ACTUAL widespread thing, is that if you end up having to go to the hospital for some reason and you're uninsured, when the hospital bills you, you can typically just go "hey I can't afford this" and they will tend to work something out that's not cheap but somewhat manageable? Often something like making payments for a certain amount of time and they forgive the rest of the debt? My understanding, currently up for review, is that any hospital price you get will probably be some bullshit number for insurance and they won't push too hard to charge you that if you're actually uninsured.
If you get lucky some places have Actual Structured Financial Aid, and also I'm sure there's some more... upmarket hospitals that will probably decline you on site. But like, is this a thing? Am I just exceptionally lucky and/or privileged af? Do most people get an absurd medical bill and just try to pay it instead of talking to the hospital about it?
Such questions make me wish I had gotten deep enough into social work to find out.
