@Dutchess_III As much as I agree the OP should buy the insurance, your bill wasn’t really that high.
It’s a racket. They inflate the price, but that amount is never paid. They inflate it because of insurance. Many reasons regarding insurance, but it mostly makes you really believe you sure as he’ll better still be buying insurance. Makes us all grateful for insurance right? Keep paying the insurance premiums.
My hospital bill was $30kish after my accident, I paid less than $3k. I had a deductible, a good $2500 was 100% of what I owed not 80/20 or something similar. If I had zero insurance the bill probably would have been around the same $5k. Oh, but since it wound up as a lawsuit (I won’t tell that whole story) the standard is to get the “billed” amount, the higher number, in a lawsuit. So, my medical expenses were over $30k for the suit, even though I never paid that much, and the hospital never maid that much, but you get that much and then the lawyer takes about 40%. Nice right?
Unfortunately, it’s the system we have now, and I would not be without insurance, but I’m hoping the system implodes on itself and people get fed up. If a huge part of the population stopped buying it, it would finally crumble. Stop buying in protest to fees. We know they make a fortune and most other countries provide health are cheaper.