> You can walk into any emergency room in the country and receive whatever care you need even without insurance or payment on-hand. While this is a benefit of

> You can walk into any emergency room in the country and receive whatever care you need even without insurance or payment on-hand. While this is a benefit of sorts (you won't actually be allowed to die due to lack of funds), it's not like the work you receive is free. You'll end up paying it back to someone. Where I live, for example, the county tends to pay off debt like this to the hospital for a significantly smaller portion of the cost. They will allow you to finance it for a very long time, but you will still pay for it. Until it's paid for, even if it takes a very long time. If the county decides not to help you (maybe, for example, you're not a taxpaying resident of the place you ended up going to the emergency room in) then the hospital will bill you for it. They might, after hounding you for a while, charge you only pennies on the dollar to pay it. Or they might be convinced to write it off - which they do occasionally, but only occasionally. The only sure way to avoid paying debt accrued through emergency medical services is to have no assets.