If We Had A Medical Section I'd Put This In It

[Kosh]

I work for a non-profit hospital organization.  I'm in radiology I.T. and not privy to specific financial information, but our organization does disclose general financial data to us.  I don't know about the hospital he went to, but here is what would probably happen in ours.
 
If he's like most people without insurance and money, he'll ignore the first few bills.  Eventually he and the hospital will get in contact and some sort of "settlement" will be agreed upon that is well below the face value of the bill.  He'll pay some amount per month, but maybe he'll even blow that off.  The remaining balance will get written off.
 
People like your brother are a large part of the reason why prices are artificially bloated.  Those of us with private insurance are subsidizing everyone without insurance.  Drug pricing is negotiated and factors into this as well.
 
I will say this, none of the insurance companies pay the "face value" of the bills either.   The amount they pay is negotiated behind closed doors.  This is why having a medical procedure outside of your insurance companies primary network is so costly.
 
Tell your brother to fuck off because he is part the reason our insurance rates are so high.

It's a chicken and egg issue.  Why can other countries afford to have lower costs, and cover their poor and uninsured?
And who's to say insurance would even have covered any of it?  As others have pointed out, insurance companies often refuse to pay for procedures, as well as "negotiating" a lower price, when regular citizens are actually billed these ridiculous amounts, so THEY are covering what the corporate insurance companies are refusing to cover.

I do wish my brother had insurance, but at the same time, blaming a sick guy who you don't even know is so American, instead of understanding this stems first from our "corporate rulers".

So go fuck off, yourself.

Really?  WTF
 
You've already stated that he's an Obamacare hater, had the money for insurance but opted out.  That's all I need to know about him in the particular circumstance.
 
It's people running around just like him with that kind of attitude that leaves us stuck in the fucking free market health-for-profit mess we are in.