if it were me I would: 1.Don't pay the bills right away explain to hospital billing department situation they should help with either welfare assistance or hospital assistance in that order of importance ASK TO PUT BILLS ON HOLD TEMPORARILY UNTIL WELFARE ASSISTANCE GOES THROUGH welfare assistance is first step and then if not accepted move on to hospital assistance if possible 2. immediately file for welfare assistance for specifically health assistance through state, hopefully a caseworker there would be of help 3. keep all paperwork organized 4. if denied from state medical assistance through state welfare office, immediately try to get hospital assistance and do not get rid of denial letter from welfare office because that letter would be needed 5. try for hospital assistance

after that I would think the situation would be resolved or I would be facing a big problem but the steps that I would have done would take at least a month or 2 maybe depending on how fast things went through and information gathering, each state is different so things could be different with guidelines, etc.