Around 6 years ago our twins were born and carrying them full term wrecked my wife's body. She proceeded to have 4 various surgeries over the next 3 years, and numerous other issues. We had/have really good health coverage but a lot of bills.
What I came to find is that not even the medical providers know what the hell you owe and what you don't, they just chuck out bills in hopes you pay them and then when asked to take a look at it "oh, yeah, insurance covered that but not that so you owe this."
We had so many bills, paid so much money...I wonder if we would have been better off just ignoring most of the out of pocket stuff even at the expense of our credit.
I don't mind paying for my healthcare but the way it's done now is a total racket with zero transparency (as PTI said) and so much complication even those people inside the system don't understand it.
I'm not suggesting I have an answer, more of an observation.