<prompt> Human: This happened a couple of days ago, but I just got the bill today. Heres the story:I 26M had just completed my cancer treatment 4 months of chemo and 1 month of radiation for hodgkins lymphoma, and after getting permission from my oncologists, I visited some friends in NYC to celebrate the end of a brutal journey and a fresh start on life. After two awesome days without any problems, I woke up with acute chest pain and shortness of breath.I had no choice but to go to the ER of a nearby hospital to get examined at 8am. The doctor gave me xanax and percocet to reduce the anxiety and relieve the pain, which made me high. And then, after a series of exams including a chest xray, CT scan, blood tests, and ECGs, I was diagnosed with bilateral subsegmental pulmonary embolism multiple blood clots in the lungs and pericarditis inflammation in the heart. In a twist of beautiful irony, the diagnoses are likely side-effects of the very cancer treatment I was celebrating the completion of. The doctor recommended that I stay at the hospital overnight for observation, but since I live in and am insured in Canada not NYC, I convinced the doctor to release me at 1pm and caught the next flight back to Canada to get treated. Today about 5 days later, the hospital in NYC sent me a 15,000 bill. WTF!!!Additional details: Im a USCanadian citizen living in Canada. Im insured in Canada through universal health care, and I have travel insurance for trips, but the travel insurance is only willing to contribute 135 for the bill. In addition to the medical bill, I also incurred a 130 flight change fee to fly back home. I was under the influence of narcotics when I made nearly all my decisions until I sobered out at the end the doctor gave me percocet and xanax for the pain and anxiety. I was in the ER for around 5 hours, but the hospital is claiming that I stayed overnight. Erroneous on all counts!!TL;DR I Canadian visited friends in NYC to celebrate the completion of my cancer treatment. Woke up with acute chest pain and shortness of breath, so I went to the ER. After undergoing various examinations, I left the hospital and received a 15,000 medical bill.I simply cant afford a 15,000 bill. Reddit, what should I do??  <response>: New York is one of the only states that actually has some regulation around excessive hospital bills. After you get the false charges removed from the bill, you can follow the law around appealing excessive charges for uninsured patients. Uninsured Patients or Patients With Employer or Union Self-insured Coverage. You may be able to file a dispute through the independent dispute resolution process if you do not have HMO or insurance coverage that is subject to New York Law for example, if you are uninsured or your employer or union self-insures and you receive a bill from a doctor for emergency services provided on and after March 31, 2015 in New York that you believe is excessive.Although if your travel insurance had some kind of HMO coverage, but the hospital did everything out of network, then this part applies instead:Your health plan must protect you from bills for out-of-network emergency services in a hospital if you have coverage through an HMO or insurer subject to NY law coverage that is not self-insured. You do not have to pay non-participating provider charges for emergency services typically for services in a hospital emergency room that are more than your in-network copayment, coinsurance or deductible this protection may only apply when your health insurance coverage renews after March 31, 2015. Let your health plan know if you receive a bill from a non-participating provider for emergency services. 