Something like this happened to one of my best friends right after we graduated university. It's a story I always tell when trying to explain the insanity of the 🇺🇸 U.S. 🇺🇸 medical system:
My friend was like 22, and didn't have insurance. University coverage ends abruptly, and it's really common for people this age be themselves uncovered. While riding his bicycle home from his low-paid job one day, he was struck by a car in Oakland. He passed out in the street.
When he woke up, he found himself, in a daze, covered in blood. He looked up and saw that an ambulance was waiting for him. Knowing very well how these things work, he said "No! No! I'm fine. I am not going to the hospital." He knew that he could never afford the bill.
So he tried to gather his wits, and found his way into a taxi home. He tried to treat his wounds, and wash off the blood in the shower, and drink a lot of water before passing out. Basically, he hoped that he would be wake up alive, rather than die in his sleep.
Luckily, he was more or less OK. He was badly scarred (and still is), but as far as he knew, they were just cuts and bruises. He planned to just rest and get back to normal life later. Then two weeks later, he got a bill in the mail.
Even though he did not call the ambulance - someone else called it for him as he was lying unconscious in the road - it still had to be paid for. The bill went to him. This was a few years ago, so I'm not going to guess the amount, but it was more than he could pay. He defaulted.
It was certainly more than $1000. Now, in addition to his serious wounds, he had a legal and financial battle. Months and months later, it turned out that the woman who struck him was found responsible. She, also, could not afford the bill or the penalty. He did not blame her.
He blamed a system that gives you the incentive to avoid being treated, when you may very well die; he blamed an employment-based insurance system that leaves you without cover whenever your life changes; and he blamed the US government for not giving a shit.
