Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Is it common in the US not to pay medical bills?
Is it common in the US not to pay medical bills? Certainly not.  What some might do, however, is not pay them immediately, with the intent to negotiate them down or get them written off.  You can also see if there's a discount for paying immediately - I've had moderate success with this, but it was during a time where we couldn't pay them all immediately, so I was more trying to figure out which ones to pay first rather than just haggling.   The obvious risk is that they go to a collections agency and get reported as unpaid debt to your credit.  I'm with you, however - it's a service that you received and it should be paid. I must precise that they are wealthy upscale members, who can afford paying these bills. Are you certain that they have large medical bills?  I suppose it's possible that they have resources that  can negotiate these on their behalf, or they don't care about the impact to their credit score. But to say "no one is doing it here" seems ludicrous.