[sigvirt]

Being potentially wiped out by a healthcare incident is not simply a matter of the looming bill. Your recommendation (i.e. to carry on by ignoring the bill) assumes the illness causes little disruption and the cure is complete. Many illnesses or injuries take much time to recover. Sometimes proper medical care cannot be obtained. Sometimes doctors don't want to take on a case, or even care to be honest. Others might withold a cure to generate recurring therapy revenue. Especially in the US, medical fraud and waste is monumental and the social safety net is insubstantial. These things will disintegrate a life more surely than a bill. Employers and creditors become impatient. Opportunistic predators circle about. If people are in debt, and without savings, then life circumstance unravels quickly at any non-trivial interruption.