I worked for a bankruptcy attorney for a year. The whole Chapter 7 process is a turnkey approach from start to finish. You enter client data into a software program and it populates all the forms, you print them out, client signs, attorney goes to court: he could do maybe 16 - 20 hearings in a day as each one takes 15 minutes or so.
I'd say about 40% of the filings were due to uninsured medical bills that totalled over $10,000.
Ironically, the health insurance plan that is being trashed in the left-wing press is the same plan that would have saved most people much grief, which is the higher deductible plan. A plan with a $3,000 deductible would still be burdensome, but it also would be affordable and allow people to get the catastrophic coverage they'd need without shifting all the excess costs to be paid by the rest of us.
A higher deductible plan also empowers people to become smarter shoppers, reducing their costs, because they actually see the price tag and respond accordingly.
When I was in my 20s, I had a plan with a $5,000 deductible (probably akin to $12,500 today). I negotiated my fees for routine and customary visits, the doctors always would agree to a lower sum because there was no paperwork involved which reduced their overhead. I have no doubt whatsoever that when private insurance was involved, the doctors and hospitals would adjust their billing upward accordingly.
Now, I'm already starting to look into the "concierge" type plan. While I'm not quite old enough yet for Medicare, it seems absurd to me that we aren't allowed to opt out of Medicare even if we want to. Why are we forced to subject ourselves to second-rate coverage even if we don't want it?
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